Fantastic 4 or 5?
by Shantel Lukasik
Summary: Johnny Storm and Candace Richards were high school sweethearts. But after a bad break up seven years ago, they are forced together by the incident on the the von Doom space station. It's the Fantastic 4 plus one. JohnnyxOC
1. Chapter 1

My senior year of high school was the best year by far up until the last week. That year I was able to lavish in the fact that I had worked my hardest for three years and in my fourth I was able to relax and only worry about college applications. Even better was that I was dating the best looking guy in school and by far the greatest boyfriend on the planet. Or so I believed. Johnny Storm was handsome, adventurous, and all mine. It wasn't hard for me to ignore his immaturity but I should have been more aware of male weakness. Glenville never seemed like a better place than when I was dating Johnny. We were voted cutest couple and prom king and queen. That night after prom, the two of us did what most teenagers do on that night. And believe me, I was his first and that will always be something that I'll be proud of. I don't regret him being my first either. Yet a week before high school would be behind us, I had the shock of seeing him in the arms of another woman. Sure it was a kiss and maybe Johnny wasn't lying when he told me she came onto him. Another woman might have forgiven him for pushing the girl away and chasing after me promising it wasn't his fault, but I knew better. The next few years would give me evidence that it was only the beginning of a long line of women he would go through. I thought after dumping him those years ago, I'd never have to see him again. I was very, very wrong.

"Candace Richards, here!"

I pulled off my backpack full of essentials and dumped it on the table in front of me. Von Doom station was much more lavish than I had expected, but it _was_ Victor von Doom running the show. Reed and Ben looked up at me with huge smiles on their faces. Ben reached me before my cousin did, giving me a huge bear hug.

"Hey, there, Candy Cane, you look well. All grown up."

I laughed as he let me go. Reed pulled me into a hug.

"Good to see you, Candy. Thanks for coming."

"Hey, you were really excited about your science and I didn't want to be left out of the fun. Maybe I can write a book about going into space after this?"

Reed nodded. I pulled my hair into a sleek ebony ponytail just as my least favorite person in the universe walked in.

"Captain on the bridge!"

Ben, who had been rummaging around in his bag, stood up quickly and saluted. I rolled my eyes and Reed grinned to himself as a camera went off, snapping a picture of Ben. Johnny Storm strode into the room, confident as ever.

"Digital camera $254, memory stick $59, the look on your hard-ass former C.O.'s face when he finds out he's your junior officer, "Johnny said, sitting down in a chair in the room," Priceless."

Ben marched over to Johnny, looking as if he were going to strangle him, which I secretly hoped he would. Instead, he unzipped the neck of the blue body suit Johnny had on. A body suit I had already put on after meeting Susan outside. She had always liked me, even though she and Reed were over and I could barely look at her brother without wanting to kill him or jump out the nearest window.

"I can handle this ship," Ben informed Johnny," I can even handle Mr. Blonde Ambition. But I don't know if I should be flying or doing _Swan Lake _in these suits. I mean, who the hell came up with these?"

It was then that Susan entered. Reed's eyes automatically went to her. She was wearing her suit as well. I raised an eyebrow at Reed, wondering if he was paying attention to her body or the suit itself.

"Victor did. The synthetic acts as a second skin, adapting to your body's individual needs."

"See, now that means it keeps the hot stuff hot and the cool stuff cool," Johnny threw in.

It was then he appeared to notice me. He stared for a moment before smirking.

"Well, helllllo, Candy. Haven't seen you in awhile. I see your body suit is doing you justice."

"Quit drooling and can it. And it's been seven years to be exact."

"Glad you're keeping track."

Looking back at Susan, I saw Reed walk over to her.

"Wow. Fantastic! Material made from self-regulating unstable molecules. I've been working on a formula for this."

Ben and I sighed, both of us knowing that Reed had obviously missed how good Susan looked. She looked pretty annoyed about his lack of perception.

"Great minds think alike."

Susan handed Ben a body suit and threw Reed's at him. After slipping into a pair of pants and a jacket with the Von Doom logo on it, I explored the station a little. It was impressive and I would have loved to write about it, but I figured if I wrote about von Doom's station, he would find a way to get paid for its use. I came upon Ben and Johnny eventually. Ben was stepping out into space when Johnny noticed me.

"What is Ben doing?" I asked, squinting at Ben as he stepped into space.

"Doing something with a plant for Reed's research."

"Oh, so he is using a plant as his test subject on genetic changes."

Johnny looked at me curiously. I rolled my eyes at him.

"What?"

"You haven't changed much, you know…"

I sighed and leaned against the transparent door.

"In intelligence or looks? Tell me you are not going to try and justify yourself still…"

"Candace."

I knew he was serious if he was calling me by my real name. I sighed and looked at the metal floor.

"Seriously, I never cheated on you. You just came around the corner after I'd been attacked by a girl. I don't even remember her name."

"I hear from Sue that you're quite the playboy. Don't remember many of the names of the girls that you make out with, hm?"

"See! You always do that," he sighed in frustration," You always have to…I didn't cheat on you. Candace, I _loved_ you, okay? Seriously, I loved you. We wouldn't have-I wouldn't have even sle-"

Reed came dashing into the room at that moment in a panic.

"We have to get Ben back in here. Right now. Ben, get inside now!"

"What's going on?" Johnny and I demanded.

"I ain't done arranging your flowers yet, egghead," Ben's voice said through an intercom.

I only then realized that Ben had been listening to everything me and Johnny had been saying. My cheeks burned as I turned to look at Ben and my eyes widened. There was wall of what looked close to fire coming toward the station.

"Ben, turn around," Reed breathed, trying to calm himself.

Ben finally noticed, but what happened next was a bit of a blur in my mind. I remember the guys talking, but I wasn't really listening. Ben jumped toward the station, trying to get back in. The storm caught him though, and sent him flying into the door as the shields began to close. It seemed to go right through the doors. I felt winded and then I fell unconscious.


	2. Chapter 2

The next thing I knew, I was waking up in quarantine. I checked myself and found I was whole. Getting up, I explored the grounds till I found Reed standing on a balcony. He hugged me when he saw me.

"Oh, good, you're okay."

"You, too. How is everyone else?"

"Well, Sue is fine. She should wake up soon. So is Johnny, as he is up and about. Ben's still out. We'll be here for one more day."

"Wow…so the mission?"

Reed sighed and sat down in a chair that was next to him.

"A complete failure. All the calculations were sound but…I don't know what happened."

I put a hand on Reed's shoulder.

"Don't stress over it. Things happen randomly sometimes. Life would be too easy without surprises. I'm gonna go check on Ben. What did you do to your hair, by the way?"

Reed looked at me in confusion. With a pat on the shoulder, I made my way back into the building. After asking nurses for information and directions, I found my way to Ben's room where I saw Johnny come dashing out of the room. I jumped almost a foot in the air as a glass mirror crashed against the wall.

"What the hell is going on?" I demanded.

Johnny was laughing hysterically.

"Oh, just a small joke. The big guy's too sensitive."

"So, he's awake? Oh, good."

I started to turn, but Johnny grabbed my arm. I instantly wrenched his hand off. He just put his hands up in defeat, a smile still on his lips.

"Didn't care to see if I was still alive?" he asked, innocently.

"Not particularly."

I began marching my way back down the hall toward Ben's room, but Johnny followed me.

"Candy Caaane!"

I whipped around and pointed my finger in his face. The look on my face must have been somewhat frightening, because he stopped in his tracks and was not smiling.

"You of all people have _no right_ to call me anything other than Candace. Frankly, I'd go as far as to say Miss Richards is all you deserve."

Johnny sighed heavily as I stalked away.

"Miss Richards, I am glad to see that you're alive."

His words stopped me before I turned the corner into Ben's room. I looked back and watched him for a moment. He looked at me as seriously as was possible, which meant he was trying pretty hard to convince me that I was wrong. I rolled my eyes. I'd gone too long denying his innocence to change my tone now.

"You're impossible," I muttered and left him standing in the hall as I jumped over broken glass.

I found Ben sitting up with a scowl on his face. I smiled and moved over to the side of his bed to sit.

"Aww, Ben, don't let that big twerp get to you."

"Candy, I just have to say I am _so proud_ of you for not going back to him."

I laughed lightly and looked at the information by Ben's bed to see how he was doing.

"Looks like you're doing well. I was wondering how it would be for you since you got the full blast of that storm."

Ben thumped his chest with a fist.

"I feel great. Though, my legs need a bit of a workout from being in bed! I think I'm going to get up and walk around a bit."

"Alright. Reed will be more than happy to see you're alive."

Ben smiled as I got up and left.

Later that afternoon, Ben found me later lounging by the pool. He sat down in a chair next to me.

"So, Candy, are you up to helping me with something?"

I narrowed my eyes.

"Whenever you ask me that question it has to do with Reed. Do I want to?"

Ben laughed and pointed at Susan, who was sitting on the other side of the pool reading a book. My eyes widened and I put a hand on Ben's shoulder.

"Oh, no. No no! I am _not_ helping you get those two together. We'll get murdered for it later."

"Please! Seriously, you know how oblivious Reed is and-"

"And Susan is dating Victor…"

"A minor detail."

I groaned and put a hand on my face.

"Ah, Ben. You're lucky you're like a big brother or I'd think you were out to kill me."

"Thanks, kiddo. All you have to do is bring Reed to the dining room around 5:30 this evening and we'll have a little dinner, you know?"

I batted my eyelashes at Ben.

"Aww, Benny, I always knew you wanted a date with me!"

The two of us laughed and I got up.

"That reminds me, how's Debbie doing?"

"She's great, she's great. Love her to death."

I smiled and gave him a pat on the back.

"She's got a great guy, too."

I saluted him and went to find Reed. At 5:30, Reed and I ran right into Ben and Susan.

"Reed, Candy! What are you two doing here?"

"Candy said-"

He stopped and looked between me, Ben, and Susan. Susan looked at us suspiciously.

"Great," Ben said, grabbing Reed and I," Maybe you two can join us."

He led us all over to an empty table. Ben sat me down and then sat Reed and Susan across from each other before sitting across from me. We spent a couple hours talking and rehashing old times. It was a lot of fun. That was until Ben's stomach began making very strange noises. He looked at us uncomfortably.

"Wow," Susan responded to the strange noise.

"You alright?" Reed and I both asked, concerned.

He looked around at us and gave us a small smile.

"Bad shrimp. I think I'd better go lie down. Excuse me."

He got up from the table and hurried away. I looked back at the two before getting up.

"I'm going to go as well. Too much wine, you know? Feeling a bit of a chill."

I waved and went to my room. I went into the closet and pulled out a baby blue sweater and pulled it on. I still felt a bit chilly but it was somehow comfortable. I decided what I needed was a warm shower, so I made my way to the bathroom. I stopped and turned to go back and get my sleeping clothes, but I noticed the ground had a trail of water leading up to me. I frowned and glanced around. There was nothing with water in it. I looked over my body and found that I was completely dry.

"Weird," I mumbled to myself.

I shook my hands to try and get over it but two spikes of pure ice shot out of my palms. I screamed as the ice hit the walls of the room and stuck there. I stared at my hands with wide eyes.

"What…is going…on?"

I dashed out of the room and ran down the hallways trying to find the others. I ran into Susan, Johnny, and Reed who were making their way toward Ben's room.

"Guys…look at what I can do."

I flung my hand to the side and an icicle shot out. The three of them stared at me. I looked at them for a reaction before noticing that Johnny had nothing on except a pink ski jacket wrapped around his lower area. I gave him an odd look.

"What are you _wearing_?"

"Long story, but look."

He snapped his fingers and a flame ignited above his thumb. Snapping again it turned off.

"Cool, huh?"

I looked at Reed in alarm.

"You guys, too?"

"The cloud has fundamentally altered our DNA."

"Great! What the heck are we supposed to do about this?"

Reed turned and continued toward Ben's room.

"We need to find Ben."

Johnny was busy flipping out about how cool he thought this all was. Susan was getting severely annoyed as he kept snapping his fingers to bring up the flame and then put it out. While she stopped and scolded Johnny outside Ben's door, Reed and I found the door locked. Reed knocked on the door as we called for Ben to open the door. We could hear painful groans from inside. Reed peeked through the window and shouted as Ben's bed crashed to the ground and the beeping of his heart rate increasing kept going up.

"What do we do?" I asked, panicking.

Susan ran over and tried to open the door with the keypad, but it wasn't working. Johnny shouted down the hallways for someone with a key. Reed looked at his hand before bending down and placing it at the bottom of the door. Susan, Johnny, and I stared as Reed's hand flattened like a pancake and slipped under the door. We watched his hand through the window as it reached up and unlocked the door from the other side before pulling his hand and arm back through the bottom of the door. We all stared at him for a moment before Johnny broke the silence.

"That's gross."

I rolled my eyes right as a huge crash came from inside the room. Reed opened the door and we all dashed inside. A huge hold had been made through the solid cement wall.

"Ben?" Reed asked.

"Look, look, look, look," Johnny said, pointing through the hole.

We all moved over to look out to see something huge crashing its way through trees to get somewhere.

"What is that thing?" I asked.

"What's going on?"

We all turned to see Victor von Doom walk into the room," What happened in here?"

Susan went over to him. He had a few cuts on his face.

"Victor. Are you feeling alright?"

"Fine, just a few scraps, that's all," he answered.

"Ben did this," Reed told Victor, turning to the man," He's had some kind of…reaction to the exposure from the cloud."

"We all have, um…different symptoms," Susan added.

Victor looked between the two of them.

"Symptoms?"

Susan looked a little sheepish.

"Victor, um...I should have-"

"Just find him."

With that he took his leave, ignoring Susan. I raised an eyebrow at him and folded my arms.

"Well, he's charming as ever."

"Anyone got any ideas to where the big guy is going?" Johnny asked.

We all looked back at him. Reed looked down at the floor and spotted a picture of Ben and Debby. I walked over to the picture and picked it up. Handing it to Reed, I shook my head sadly.

"He's going home," Reed answered.


	3. Chapter 3

In the morning, the four of us piled into a taxi and headed to where Debbie lives. I sat up front with the taxi driver as Johnny, Susan, and Reed were stuck together uncomfortably in the back. We were driving along fine until traffic suddenly stopped as we reached the Brooklyn Bridge. We all jumped out of the car to look ahead and see what the holdup was. Many other people got out of their cars to look as well. The four of us all looked at each other, wondering what to do before we made our way forward. We already suspected something was happening with Ben. The police had already set up a barricade by the time we got close enough. The police were keeping everyone away from the crashed cars.

"What do we do now?" Susan asked as we looked for a way around the police.

"We're not gonna get past these guys," Reed told her," But you could."

We all watched as Susan closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. She had disappeared, but her clothes were still visible.

"Sue, your clothes," Reed whispered.

People in the area were already whispering as they had seen a person completely disappear and there were now just floating clothes.

"Oh, right!"

She began pulling her clothes off. I couldn't help but smile a little. Johnny turned away even though he couldn't see anything.

"This is so wrong…" he muttered.

Just as Susan was about to take off her bra, she became visible again. Johnny turned away again with a small "Ugh". Reed looked at her in surprise while I just felt bad for her. When she noticed she gasped and tried to cover herself up with her arms.

"Wow, you've been working out," Reed said, making me smack my hand to my forehead.

"Shut up!" Susan told him, annoyed," Anymore great ideas?"

She picked up her jacket and covered her front as she yelled at Reed.

"Why don't _you_ strip down and have a hundred people stare at you?"

She began to disappear as she yelled. Reed tried to draw her attention back to the fact and she eventually noticed.

"What? Oh," she said, dropping her jacket.

"I'm gonna need therapy," Johnny said.

I gave him a pat on the shoulder.

"You've needed it for a long time."

He gave me a dirty look, but I just shrugged. Susan ditched the rest of her clothes and began pushing through the crowd. Reed tapped me and Johnny.

"C'mon. Let's get out of here."

Reed and I began following the parted people Susan had pushed through as Johnny picked up his sister's clothes before following. Once we were through the crowd, Susan dashed around a huge destroyed car and put her clothes back on.

"I still can't believe you made me do that," she complained to Reed.

"We got through didn't we? Just find Ben."

Reed ran between cars and Susan climbed up on a taxi to get a better look. Johnny and I waited by Susan. Susan and I called out for him a couple times. It didn't take long for a man composed completely of rock came out from behind a car. We all stared at him in shock. It was obviously Ben, but we just couldn't believe it. Before we could say or do anything, a gas can exploded causing an explosion of fire from the wrecked cars. Johnny had spotted a little girl trapped among some cars had had jumped over to shield her from the flames just in time. Cars went flying as Susan and I ducked. I couldn't see Reed or Ben anymore. As more gas cans erupted Susan and I put our hands out instinctually but the flames were suddenly engulfed by an invisible force field and a wall of ice had erected itself before us from my hands. We looked at each other in surprise. Susan pushed the flames and shield away. When I put my hands down, the wall instantly melted away. I grabbed Susan as she leaned down, exhausted from the effort of holding up the shield. A trickle of blood left her nose. A strange sound made us look up. A fire truck had gone halfway off the bridge and a man on the truck's later dangled over the water as the ladder had followed gravity. The truck was about to fall into the water, but Ben grabbed the front and kept it on the bridge. He truck was too heavy for him, though, so he was slowly sliding toward the edge with the truck. The fireman couldn't hold on to the ladder and fell from the ladder. Luckily, Reed leaned off the side of the bridge and caught the man with his super stretchy arms. As he pulled him to safety, Ben was able to pull the truck back up onto the bridge. As the police surrounded Ben as if to apprehend or shoot him, the three of us ran over. The police blocked us from him, but the firemen and the people who had watched the whole scene applauded for Ben saving lives. We noticed Debbie arrive at the bridge. As Ben tried to go toward her, she backed away shaking her head. The police let us through and we moved a little closer to Ben. We could only watch as Debbie took off her engagement ring and placed it on the asphalt before leaving. Ben went over to the ring, but couldn't pick it up because his fingers were too big. Reed went over and picked it up for him. I bent my head, feeling bad for Ben. I knew how hard it was to love someone and watch their love for you go away. I looked over and Johnny. He looked back at me, but I turned away before our eyes could meet.

We were all soon taken to a tent that had been erected on the bridge for all those injured. The five of us were given a check-up to make sure we were okay. Ben sat staring at the ring in his hand. I sat next to him with my arm on his rocky shoulder and Johnny sat staring at Ben. Susan and Reed were finishing their check-ups.

"Where are your ears?" Johnny asked, seriously.

Ben glared over at him, as did I.

"Ignore him, Ben," I said, loud enough for Johnny to hear.

One of the firemen came over to our group.

"There are some folks outside that wanna talk to you," he said, looking at Reed.

"We're not going public. We're scientists, not celebrities."

The fireman shook his head.

"It's too late, son. Look."

He went over to one of the televisions that had been set up. We all crowded around it. The news was on and we were on camera. The newscaster was talking about each of us having used some special talent and explaining we had saved the day. On the bottom of the screen was "The Fantastic Five".

"Cool," Johnny said, running of the tent.

I groaned. Susan stopped him.

"No, wait! Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna go talk to 'em."

"No. We should think this through."

Johnny looked around at all of us in the tent.

"That's great. Brainstorm."

With that he dashed out of the tent. I was the first one to follow him to make sure he didn't say something stupid. Susan and Reed were quick to follow.

"Get back here right now!" Susan and I called, but Johnny was already in front of the press.

Questions erupted as Johnny smiled happily at the attention. I stopped beside him and waited for Reed to reach us.

"Which one of you is the leader?" the fireman asked.

"That would be me," Johnny answered instantly.

The man laughed. I had a small smirk on my face as well, but no one saw that.

"No, seriously."

Susana and I both looked at Reed. He was reluctant at first, but eventually stepped forward. He swallowed, nervous as microphones were shoved toward him and cameras flashed.

"Uh, during our recent mission to the Von Doom Space Station we…we were exposed to as yet unidentified radioactive energy."

Questions suddenly starting coming at him.

"What happened on the bridge?"

"How did you stretch?"

"Where did the ice come from?"

"Were you really on fire?"

"Is it true you can fly?"

Johnny like this question and instantly responded to it.

"Yeah, I'm working on it. It's actually difficult-"

Susan stepped forward, interrupting him.

"Actually, we do not know much more than you do at this point. We'll be going directly to our lab to diagnose our symptoms."

"Symptoms? Is this some kind of disease?" someone asked.

"No, no it's not a disease," Johnny said, stepping in front of everyone.

I turned and spotted Ben had joined us and the both of us shook our heads at the village idiot. Susan and Reed both stared at him to shut up. But he was Johnny…so of course he didn't.

"If having special powers is a disease then, yeah, we got it bad."

Someone pointed to Ben.

"That "thing" doesn't look so fantastic."

Reed put a hand up as Ben stepped forward. Johnny put an arm around the big guy's shoulders.

"Ben Grimm is a genuine American hero."

"What he means to say," Johnny butted in," is every team needs a mascot."

He put his other arm around me and it took all my willpower not to smack him in front of the news cameras.

"A new day is dawning. The day of the Fantastic Five."

Reed looked ready to beat Johnny up just as much as I did.

"Look, look!" he said, getting their attention," We went up into space to find a way to understand DNA. Cure disease, save lives! Well now it's our DNA. Our disease, our lives on the line. Thank you, no more questions."

We all walked away. Well, most of us as Johnny had to be dragged away. We got into police cars that drove us back to Reed's place. We were off to the Baxter Building.


	4. Chapter 4

It was crazy. People were already waiting outside the Baxter Building for us to arrive. I stared out of the taxi window in utter disbelief. One little ice wall and I was roped into the media with the rest of them. I sighed. This was not how I wanted my publicity. I was already a published writer; I didn't need to be a hero as well. Johnny looked out over my shoulder.

"C'mon. Tell me you don't think this is cool."

"This isn't cool."

Johnny sighed at me.

"At least your book is probably soaring off the shelves."

"As if you ever read it."

"Well, genetics isn't my favorite topic, but I particularly liked chapter eleven since it was on humans and the differences between most animal reproductions versus humans."

I turned and stared at him with wide eyes. He gave me that stupid sexy smirk that always used to make me melt. Now it just irked me.

"By God! You have a brain?"

"Ha ha…"

The car stopped and we left for the building with cheers coming from all around us. I walked along with Ben and Johnny as Reed and Susan disappeared into the building. Johnny made sure to greet the crowd. He put a hand on Ben's shoulder.

"Come on, Ben. Smile. They want to like you, Ben. Say hi."

Ben looked over at a group of kids watching and smiling. I couldn't help but smile a little as he went over to them. The crowd went quiet.

"Uh, don't do drugs!"

The crowd let out a cheer as I wanted to fall on the ground laughing. I saw Johnny had a slight smirk on his face. I tapped Ben on the shoulder and followed Johnny inside and waited with the others for the elevator. The mail man greeted Reed and once the elevator came we all got on. Susan and I both noticed that the huge stack of mail Reed got had fail mail.

"We had a tough year," Reed responded.

"Yeah, like nine straight," Ben added.

We all waited for the elevator to go up, but it didn't. We all looked around.

"Either we're moving really fast or not at all," Johnny commented.

The elevator alarm rang alerting us that we were over the maximum weight limit. It was sad as we all knew it was Ben. He sighed.

"I'll take the stairs."

We waited and watched sadly as he exited the elevator and the doors closed. Once we were moving I looked at Reed.

"How come Ben can't turn it off and on like we can?"

"That's what we're here to find out," Reed said, squeezing my shoulder.

Susan looked over at him.

"If it happened to him-"

"What? You mean, like, we won't be able to turn it off either?" Johnny asked," That would save time. Ha!"

"You don't really want to walk around on fire the rest of your life, do you?" Susan asked.

I felt a brother sister argument blowing in.

"Is that a trick question?"

"Grow up."

"Come on. Am I the only guy who thinks this is cool?"

We were all saved from answering by us reaching our floor. Reed exited first.

"We should stay here until we can define the extent of our changes and figure out how to reverse them."

He tossed his mail into an ever growing pile of ignored mail. I was impressed anyone could ignore that much mail.

"Whoa."

Johnny was obviously impressed by the set up of Reed's place. The largest part of his hose was his lab which was a circular, metal room with too many things to name. Lots of computers, lots of things to test with, moderately dangerous to play with if you knew nothing about science.

"Believe it or not, he lives here," I sighed, following Susan and Reed," Can't believe I'm stuck here with you."

"Don't you just know how to make a man feel all warm and fuzzy inside," Johnny responded, sarcastically.

Reed continued what he was saying about everyone living together.

"But I have to warn you, it's gonna be a little crowded in some areas. So what do you think?"

Johnny shook his head.

"I don't know, Reed. I think you might be bringing your work home with you."

Reed laughed, though I knew it wasn't really that funny. I looked over at Susan and I could see that this had been part of the reason she'd broken up with him.

"Come on. Let me show you guys where you'll be staying. Candy, you get your regular room."

"Thanks."

Following him, Johnny was put in the room that connected to my bathroom. I was ready to strangle Reed, but he took me into a corner and explained that Susan had another room that he wanted her to have since she used it sometimes when they were together. Johnny was more than thrilled by our connected rooms.

"I can visit you whenever I want," Johnny said, laying back on his bed as I put my things in the bathroom.

I scowled.

"I'll remember to lock my door at all times."

Johnny grinned over at me.

"Only locks from the inside of the bathroom, love."

I gripped the edge of the counter with an iron grip. These living conditions were going to suck. I could tell. I could only hope Reed would make a cure quickly. Letting go of the counter, I stared at where my hands had been. The counter had ice in the shape of my hand on it.

"Oops," I murmured before going into my room and pointedly slamming the door.

Reed started testing us the next morning. He put Johnny in a titanium box that could read the temperature, studied Susan through a glass that could still see here without her being visible to the human eye, and he ran small reflex tests and did x-rays on Ben. For me, he did what he did with Johnny, only my numbers went deep into the negatives. I freaked out at one point, seeing that I could completely cover myself in ice along with shaping ice with my hands and throwing frozen projectiles. Susan helped Reed for most of his, but I requested to be present at the testing of my polar opposite. Reed was more than happy to let me. Johnny could cover himself in flame like I could cover myself in ice.

"He's heating up from his core," Reed noted," You do the same except…you bring down the temperature."

"Well, the male body is normally a higher body temperature than the female body," I quipped.

Reed gave me a look so I put my hands up.

"Just saying."

"His vitals are completely normal," Susan noticed.

I sat down beside Reed. I stared at the computer. The three of us were behind a protective metal wall and glass window that Reed got from the U.S. Army to protect us in case Johnny caused an explosion.

"Okay, Johnny, heat up as much as you can."

"Got it."

As the numbers climbed, Reed's brow furrowed deeper and deeper. I gaped at the screen as he was getting over 3000 Kelvin.

"It's hotter than I anticipated. Okay, Johnny, back it down."

"I can go hotter!"

I groaned and lowered myself to sit on the ground.

"This isn't going to go well…"

"Johnny, just back it down," Susan told him.

It began to get really hot. We were all screaming for Johnny to stop, but of course he wouldn't. Reed wound up having to hit the button that extinguished the fire. The three of us moved out of our protective wall to the sound of Johnny laughing.

"Buzz-kill! You guys are crampin' my style."

It was impressive; he'd melted all but the corners of the box. He stuck his head out of one of the holes to look up at us covered in white and fluffy carbon dioxide. He looked so stupid, I grinned.

"Johnny, you were at 4000 Kelvin," Susan told him," Any hotter and you're approaching supernova."

"Sweet!"

I shook my head.

"No, not sweet. That's the temperature of the sun," I told him.

"Not only could you kill yourself," Reed butt in," but you could set fire to the Earth's atmosphere and destroy all human life as we know it."

Johnny nodded in understanding.

"Got it. Supernova-bad."

I sighed.

"Of course _he _gets the power to kill the world. The one who is most likely to use it."

Johnny scampered off to shower as Susan and Reed went to clean up. I went back to my room and continued unpacking. I was almost done when Johnny walked into my room with only a towel around his waist. I glared at him through the mirror on my dresser, refusing to turn to look at him.

"Turn around and go back."

"I don't know. I kind of like the feeling over being in your room and not wearing much. Wait…that's true about most women's rooms. Besides, it's nothing you haven't seen before."

"And nothing that I plan to see ever again."

Johnny came over to me and put a hand on my dresser.

"What is your deal? You won't listen to me. It's always what you want. You don't ever want to hear anything you don't want to."

"It's compensation for me having to see things I don't want to see."

Johnny looked like he wanted to say something but he just growled and frustration and went back to the bathroom.

"One of these days, Richards, you're going to hear me out."

"Not any day soon," I replied, under my breath.


	5. Chapter 5

Since Johnny complained about singeing his shirts over the next couple of days, Reed spent half of his time creating a fabric that would not burn off when Johnny heated up, would go invisible with Susan, stretch with him, and would freeze and break off with me. Johnny had said he'd be fine if my clothes broke off around him. I silenced him with a swift kick to the abdomen. He figured out that the outfits we had worn on the space station changed with us so they would do the job. Having put it on to make sure they fit, Ben was having a good laugh at us since his didn't fit anymore as we presented ourselves to him in the living room.

"You guys look like an '80s rock band," he laughed.

Johnny pretended he was a superhero while I sat down on the couch and watched Ben laugh at us. Susan looked over at him.

"You know, Ben, this material stretches. I'm sure I can figure out a way to make it fit."

"I wouldn't be caught dead wearing that," he responded.

I smiled at him.

"I'll hold you to that."

He chuckled at my comment. Johnny was grinning from ear to ear.

"I love these costumes! They're missing something, though. Needs, like, spice-"

"They're not costumes," Reed interjected.

"You can't use your powers in public, Johnny," Susan added.

"You guys are worse than NASA."

He started walking back upstairs to change.

"Maybe it needs a utility belt," Ben added, snickering.

Susan, Reed, and I all gave him irritated looks before going back upstairs to change.

The next morning, Reed was reading the paper and I was eating my eggs and bacon while Ben squeezed a bag of oranges into a glass bowl to make orange juice for himself. Susan sat across from me reading a magazine. I smiled at Ben.

"You know, that's actually kind of cool," I commented.

Ben laughed.

"Glad you think so, sweetheart."

Johnny came in, finally, after taking forever to shower and get dressed. Reed had asked that they have a meeting at breakfast to discuss how to diagnose our problems.

"All right, I'm here. Let's make this quick. I've got a lot of places to go today."

As he passed Ben, he took the bowl of orange juice the big guy was about to drink right out of his hands.

"Oh, wait. I don't go anywhere."

I turned in my chair so I could look back at him.

"That's a good change of pace for you."

"Quiet, peppermint stick."

"What did you call me?"

Reed put a hand on mine to stop me from killing him with my fork.

"Johnny, it's imperative that we stay inside for the foreseeable future."

"I know, I know, Reed, but when you said that last time my brain hurt a week."

I feigned surprise.

"You have one of those?"

"Peppermint stick."

"WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT _MEAN_!"

"Johnny, it's too dangerous for you to be in public," Susan sighed.

"You've been saying that for years."

I snorted, gaining a flick to the back of the head from my favorite asshole. I looked over at Reed who had a worried look on his face.

"What worries me is that our powers are evolving."

Johnny sighed.

"I know, I _know_! I am so close to flying, guys, I can taste it."

Susan laughed.

"You can't fly."

"Yet."

I smelled something burning and turned to see that the napkin Johnny had used was on fire. I raised an eyebrow as the man hadn't even noticed.

"Johnny, can you put that napkin out?" his sister requested.

He turned around.

"Oh, Jesus."

He tried smacking it out with his hands but it didn't dissipate. I got up with a sigh, walked over to the counter next to Johnny, and froze it. Johnny gave me a grin.

"Thank you."

"I did it for the house, not you."

I leaned back against the counter beside Johnny, having finished my breakfast anyway. Ben looked up at Reed after sticking a fork in his bowl of fruit.

"What's going on, Reed? How're you going to cure us?"

Reed apparently had been waiting for this. He grabbed a diagram that was next to him and showed it to us.

"I'm gonna build a machine to re-create the storm. The cosmic rays will travel from this generator to this chamber."

Johnny gave Reed a teasing look.

"What? No pop-ups?"

Susan and I both gave him dirty looks.

"You really are the youngest!" I announced, flouncing back to my seat.

Johnny gave me a look.

"Have you noticed that you only speak to insult me?"

I shrugged, happy to do just that. Reed continued with his explanation.

"If I can reverse the wave signal-"

"It'll return us back to normal," I finished," Very nice, Reed."

At that moment I heard the sound of metal crunching. Looking over at Ben, I gave him a sympathetic look as both he and I saw that he had taking a bite out of his fork as well as the fruit. Susan had apparently asked Reed the problems with the plan in the meantime.

"Even a small miscalculation could increase our symptoms exponentially. Or perhaps even kill us."

"Now, dying- that's bad, right? I say we just let sleeping dogs lie, guys."

At this point we all just ignored Johnny's opinion as he sat down at the table in the chair next to me.

"So, how long till this contraption is up and running?" Ben asked, eagerly.

"It's hard to say," Reed replied.

"How long, Reed?"

"I don't know-"

"You don't _know_?"

Me, Susan, and Johnny all looked down as Ben stood up from his seat.

"You don't want this to get worse," Reed told his friend.

Johnny laughed.

"Worse than _that?_"

I kicked him really hard. I smiled as I saw him mouth the word "OW". Susan stepped into the argument.

"Guys, look, we're gonna be stuck here for a while. So let's just try and get along. "

Johnny, Ben, and I all looked around at each other. This wasn't going to be a walk in the park. Not for a long shot.


	6. Chapter 6

"Caaaandace. Caaaaandace. Candy Cane!"

I groaned and rolled over onto my stomach. I hugged my blankets to my chest and curled up into a ball.

"Mmmah."

"Peppermint stick."

My eyes shot open. Only one person could call me that. I grabbed my pillow and turned to hit Johnny. I caught him by surprise. He didn't expect it, nor did he expect how strong I was. He tried to back away but he tripped on the rug and fell onto his back. I got out of bed and stood over him.

"How _dare_ you come in my room!"

"Hey, I'm finding it totally worth it right now. I'm intrigued that you wear lingerie to bed even when there is no guy with you."

I gaped at him before looking down at the teal lingerie I was wear. I grabbed my blanket off the bed and covered myself up. Johnny just laughed and got up.

"I've seen less. _Much_ less on you."

I glared up at him.

"Not since I was seventeen!"

"Yeah, but you were still rather developed back then."

I aimed to hit him with the pillow again, but the attack was much weaker now that I was trying to hold up a blanket as well. Johnny caught the pillow, wrenched it from my hands, and picked me up. After tossing me over his shoulder, he dropped my pillow on my bed as I kicked and screamed.

"Put me DOWN! NOW! Johnny, don't make me freeze you to death!"

"Psh. I'll just melt it off and you know it."

He dropped me on my bed before climbing on top of me. I tried to push him off, but it was like trying to move a wall. He had me trapped as well. I couldn't go anywhere. I glared up at him.

"Johnny!"

"Will you quit shouting? We need to talk and this is the only way I'm going to get you to listen. I know you've heard this all before, but you have to believe me, Candace. I didn't cheat on you. I never, ever even wanted to. You were all I wanted and I loved you. I'm not asking for you to like me again and I'm not asking that you suddenly be nice to me. I want you to believe me. Somewhere deep in your heart you have to know that I'm not lying and that I didn't cheat on you."

I tried to look away from Johnny's eyes, but he turned me back with his hand. I hadn't seen him be this sincere for years. I sighed and closed my eyes.

"Fine. I believe you. But I still don't like you very much."

He smiled before that smiled turned into a smirk.

"Yeah, well, you'll change your mind in time. Now, hovering over you like this is quite a turn on so would you like to-"

"Get off of me."

"You're no fun."

"That's not true!"

"Hey, Candy, can I ask you something?"

Johnny and I both looked at the door in alarm as Susan came in. She had been looking down at a clipboard in her hand and when she looked up her mouth dropped a little. She blinked at us.

"Oh…well…I'm sorry I interrupted."

She casually walked back out of the room and shut the door. Johnny and I looked back at each other.

"Most awkward moment of my life," Johnny mused, sliding off me," I'm going to go sort that out and, hey, if you want to prove to me that you're still fun, meet me in my room later. I want to try something on Ben."

"But-"

He was already out the door with a quick salute. I sighed. The idiot was a handful, but he was an idiot I would…_try_ to get along with. I went into the bathroom thinking for a moment. I shrugged. Meh, I was still going to make snarky comments at him if I felt like it. Too much fun to give up.

I met Johnny at the door leading to his room for the bathroom. He had been making weird faces in the mirror, so I raised an eyebrow at him. He spotted me and turned.

"Practicing for the cameras."

I shook my head.

"So your prank is…?"

"Oh, right!"

He picked up a can of shaving cream from his dresser along with a feather duster. I shook my head.

"Oh, no. I am _not _helping. But…I will watch."

"Hmm…"

Johnny seemed to think about this for a little while before shrugging.

"Alright, come with me, peppermint stick."

"Oh my God…"

Johnny laughed as he held his bedroom door open for me.

"What? You said I couldn't call you Candy Cane."

"Fabulous…"

We went downstairs to the living room to find poor Ben sleeping on the couch. I sat in a chair nearby as Johnny poured shaving cream into Ben's left hand. After dashing around the couch, he dusted Ben's face. There was no reaction at all. He tried for about a minute until he decided to try the handle. We both were a bit disappointed as he used his right hand to try and brush the duster away. Johnny tried again with the handle for a few moments until Ben's left hand lifted and the shaving cream covered his face. Johnny threw his arms up in silent victory as I tried to stifle my laughter. We both leaped up and ran out of the room as Ben woke up.

"JOHNNY!" we both heard him yell.

We ran back to Johnny's room and practically died laughing.

"Did you see that? That was perfect!" Johnny cheered.

"I wish I had gotten that on camera!" I said, grabbing Johnny's arms," Why didn't I think of it? Oh, too funny."

We laughed for a few more seconds until we noticed just how close we'd gotten. We used to play pranks on people all the time when we were in high school, even before we were dating. I cleared my throat and let go of his arms. Johnny whistled and took a step back.

"Okay. You're still fun," he conceded.

I grinned.

"Thank you for acknowledging that."

It was awkwardly silent after that. I made my way to the door.

"I'm gonna go check on how Reed is going."

Johnny nodded.

"Yeah, sounds good. I'll let you know if I think of more pranks."

I had been halfway out the door when he said that. I stopped and smiled.

"I'm sure you'll think of something."


	7. Chapter 7

A few days went by. The house was a pretty boring place to be. Reed was working with the government to build his machine so his lab was filled with people and loud noises. I was browsing through Reed's collection of books, a couple I were proud to call my own, when I caught Johnny tiptoeing past the living room to get to the front door.

"Freeze."

He stopped in the middle of the door frame. He gave me the charmer smile which luckily had no affect on me. I went over to him.

"Thank you for not doing that literally, I would hate to have to burn off my clothes to free myself."

I looked him over. He was ready to go out. The keys to his pretty little red sports car were in his hand and he was wearing designer jeans and a leather jacket. I folded my arms.

"Where are you going?" I demanded," You're not supposed to go out."

He sighed.

"I can't stay locked in here, Candace. I need to get out for a little bit. You don't need to tell Susan or anyone I'm gone. I'll be back later. I'll bear the consequences."

I snorted.

"You? Bear consequences? No. Go back upstairs and stay there."

He waved a hand at me, knowing I couldn't make him. He took off toward the door and I followed him.

"Johnny, please don't. I know you. You're going to draw attention and the last thing we need is that."

He turned and looked at me.

"What is wrong with a little publicity? You're a writer, you've had the spot light. Let me have some for a little while."

"It's a bad idea."

He ignored me and left. I groaned in irritation. He never every listened to anyone except himself. I wondered what it was going to take to make that guy grow up. I didn't understand how we could be the same age and yet be so different in our views of life. I tried to pretend that everything would be fine and that he was just getting a little fresh air. An hour later, I found Ben watching television in the living room.

"Ben, I need to tell you something," I sighed, collapsing onto the couch beside him.

"Oh, yeah? What's that?"

"Johnny's an idiot."

"Haha, well we all knew tha-wait. What is this?"

I looked at the television screen and almost released a string of curse words. Johnny was riding a motorbike on TV.

"Why?" I moaned, putting my head in my hand.

Ben got up and got Susan and Reed as fast as he could. He brought them to the living room and we all watched Johnny make a fool of himself and us on television.

"What did he do to his uniform?" Susan asked.

He had evidently worn the uniform under his clothes and after catching fire, had taken off his singed clothing. On the chest was a "5" logo. I raised an eyebrow at Reed who looked a little guilty. The lady interviewing Johnny noticed it as well.

"I've gotta ask you about this outfit."

"Yeah, it's sort of Armani meets astronaut."

"So, what are your superhero names?"

I shook my head.

"Oh, no. Please don't answer."

But of course he did.

"They call me the Human Torch. Ladies call me Torch."

All of our jaws unhinged. I even made a face.

"That's disturbing."

"What about the rest of the team?"

A picture of Susan popped up on the screen. Susan glared at the screen.

"That's the Invisible Girl."

""Girl?"" Susan asked, insulted.

Reed's picture popped up next.

"What about Reed Richards? I hear you call him Mr. Fantastic. Is it true what they say, that he can expand any part of his anatomy?"

"Well, I've always found him to be a little limp."

Reed gaped and the rest of us shook our heads. I sighed as mine appeared.

"How about Candace Richards? I hear the two of you get along about as well as cats and dogs."

"She's not so bad, but she is a Frost Queen."

I put my head in my hands once again.

"I sound like a frozen dessert!"

Ben was next on the screen.

"What is that? What do you call that thing?"

"That's it. The Thing. You think this is bad? You should have seen him before."

Everyone turned to look at Ben. He was beyond angry now.

"Okay, now I'm gonna go kill him."

Ben headed for the door as Susan, Reed, and I ran to get dressed to go out. We took a taxi out there since Ben couldn't fit in my car. When we reached the right place, Johnny was coming out surrounded by a group of people. Most of them were women. Two were linked to his arms.

"There he is," Susan pointed.

We made a beeline straight for him.

"Johnny-"

"Look, can we talk about this later, guys?"

"No, we can't. What are you thinking?"

Johnny was ignoring her completely.

"Where's my ride?"

Suddenly a ball of red and glass slammed into view. We all just stared at it. It was what was left of Johnny's car after Ben had crushed it. Johnny's jaw dropped. The license plate flew and hit Johnny in the head before clanking to the ground. The youngest member of the team was outraged. Ben came marching toward him.

"You think that's funny, Pebbles?"

Susan tried to get Johnny's attention still.

"Johnny! You gave us names? You don't think! So now you're the face of the Fantastic Five?"

"A face that's about to be broken," Ben announced.

Susan moved away though Reed tried to step in between the two males.

"This isn't permanent. We need to be careful until we're normal again."

I was surprised as Johnny yelled at Reed.

"Well, what if I don't want to be normal? I didn't turn into a monster!"

Ben wound up to punch him, but stopped. He turned and began walking away. Now I was upset.

"Johnny, say you're sorry."

Instead, he threw a fireball at the man of rock. Ben stopped and turned back.

"Did you just-?

Another fireball was tossed at him. Now Ben was inconsolable.

"That's it, Tinker Bell! You wanna fly? Then fly!"

Reed stepped between them again.

"No, Ben!"

The crowd gasped as Ben punched Johnny through Reed and sent him flying into a Burger King sign. Johnny had a look in his eye that read "Oh, it's on now". Susan tried to stop him, but he ignore her. She ended up having to step in between the two of them to keep them away from each other.

"You two need a time-out!"

Ben turned and walked away. Susan scolded Johnny before following Ben. Reed and I tried to talk to Johnny. He noticed us watching him.

"What?"

We followed him as he began walking away.

"You need to control yourself and think before you act," Reed told him, calmly.

"Yeah, but that's your problem- you always think, you never act."

"Johnny!" I interjected.

"What if we got these powers for a reason? What if it's like some higher calling?" Johnny ignored me and addressed Reed.

"Higher calling? Like getting girls and making money?"

"Is there any higher? You know what, Reed, this is who we are. Accept it. Or better yet…enjoy it."

Reed could say anything more as Johnny walked away. I put a hand on Reed's shoulder.

"I'll try and talk to him."

He looked over at me.

"Are you sure?"

I shrugged and grinned.

"Yeah. I'll bring him back as soon as I can."

I ran off after Johnny. I found him in the guy's locker room changing. Everyone let me in because of who I was. Johnny looked up after pulling his pants on over his uniform.

"Now you, huh?" he sighed, grabbing his shirt.

I walked inside and sat down on the bench by him.

"Yeah…me. I could definitely yell at you, but I don't think that would do much good."

We heard whispering outside the door. Apparently it was spreading that the Human Torch and the Frost Queen were in the male locker room together. I nodded to the door.

"Rumors are gonna start. Oh, well. Johnny, let's just go back to the Baxter Building. Don't you think you've done enough for today?"

"Gawd, why are you all always on my ass? Why do I always get to be the screw up? Why isn't it you? You're the same age as me."

I shook my head.

"You don't understand it has nothing to do with that."

Johnny finished dressing and just stood angrily.

"I'm not going back yet. I finally have some freedom and I'm going to take it. Are you coming with me or not?"

I sighed and got up. I followed him around for most of the day. The day consisted on mobs of people following us and asking for pictures and autographs. Lots of girls were following Johnny around and flirting like their lives depended on it. I was even surprised that some guys were trying to get my attention. The only time we got left alone was when we went to eat dinner. The owner of the store had barred the other people out to keep them from breaking anything in his restaurant. Johnny and I sat at a table. As I looked over the menu, I spotted Johnny batting his eyelashes at me.

"What are you doing?" I asked, creeped out.

"It's so lovely that you took me on a date, Johnny! I secretly still love you and want to-OW! It was a joke, Jesus! You're so violent."

He rubbed the bruise that was forming on his shin. I reached over and picked up the prototype Ben doll and squeezed it.

"It's clobberin' time."

I smiled and put it back from where I'd picked it up.

"He's going to hate that. I hope I don't get a stupid catchphrase."

Johnny laughed.

"Are you kidding? I totally want one."

A waiter came over and took our orders. I was tired from the day and I ordered a beer. Johnny raised an eyebrow at me.

"That's rather masculine. Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Nothing wrong with a beer now and then."

"Yeah, but Reed mentioned you have a low alcohol tolerance."

"He's been talking to about me? Since when?"

Johnny gave me a sly smirk.

"He started with your 21st birthday."

"NO!"

I put my hands to my mouth.

"He's such a traitor!"

It was a nice dinner. Johnny didn't irritate me a lot and I had fun. Though, after a few beers, I was starting to wonder if it was the alcohol that was making me so jovial. As we left the restaurant, it was nice to see that no one swarmed Johnny and me. On the way to the Baxter Building, I tripped in my heels so many times that Johnny was walking behind me to make sure I didn't fall over into the street. I was laughing like crazy and Johnny's face was extra amused.

"You, my dear, are drunk off your ass," he told me as I tripped again and laughed hysterically," You haven't laughed with me like this in years."

I draped my arms around his shoulders. He seemed extremely cute all of a sudden. I smiled up at him.

"What's wrong with being a little drunk?"

"Nothing. But you're _super_ drunk. Come on. We're getting nowhere with you like this."

Johnny picked me up into his arms so that he was carrying me bridal style. I giggled making him shake his head with a smirk. It didn't take him long to get us to the Baxter Building and up to my room. He placed me down on the bed.

"Alright, goodnight, Candy."

"Waaiiit!"

While he was still leaning over, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him down to me. He fell onto the bed, but made sure not to fall on top of me and hurt me. I felt his arm with my right hand.

"Wow, so strong."

"I don't like where this is going…" he said to no one in particular.

I leaned up and kissed him.

"Knew it," he mumbled against my lips.

I pulled away and pouted.

"You don't like me?"

"Of course I do, but I don't want to die in the morning when you're sober."

He gave in as I kissed him again. I kicked my heels off so I could put my feet on the bed as I pulled him closer to me. I tried to wrap my legs around his waist, but he kept my mini-skirt pulled down so that I couldn't. Once I gave up on it, he kissed me back. As we kissed, I felt him taking the hair tie out of my hair and placed it on my dresser without even looking. The kiss lasted for a moment longer before he pulled back and leaped off the bed.

"Okay, Candy. I gotta go. See you tomorrow."

"Wai-"

He dashed into the bathroom and I heard the doorknob click. I'd been locked out of the bathroom and, subsequently, his room.


	8. Chapter 8

I stood outside Johnny's bedroom door, too afraid to knock. I'd spent my entire morning mentally abusing myself for last night. Honestly, I was so shocked by not only _my _actions, but Johnny's. I hadn't taken an opportunity that was put in front of him. In the back of my mind, I couldn't help wondering if I'd misjudged him. Or maybe he was just maturing? No, wait. Johnny wasn't mature. Nevermind. I lifted my hand to knock on the door, but dropped it again. I couldn't. I was too embarrassed. I turned to walk away, but I stopped. No, I had to apologize and thank him for…uh…I put a hand on my forehead. He got me home and he didn't sleep with me. HOW DO YOU THANK SOMEONE FOR NOT SLEEPING WITH YOU? I groaned and whacked my head on his bedroom door.

"Ow," I whimpered, rubbing my head.

The door opened and there he was, watching me. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow as I yelped and blushed. He tried to keep his face serious, but he couldn't help chuckling.

"I can't take you serious with that red bump on your forehead."

I let my hand drop away from my face and glared at him. He leaned against the doorframe.

"Ah, I see you're back to your normal self. Oh, I missed your frigid glares coming my way."

He never failed to take five seconds to upset me. I turned to walk away.

"Well, if you're just going to-ACK! Johnny!"

He had grabbed my wrist and dragged me into his room. He closed the door.

"Did you come to finish up what happened last night?" he asked, giving me a teasing wink.

I shudder ran up my spine. A look of shame must have appeared on my face because Johnny walked over to me and put a hand on my arm.

"Hey, don't worry about it."

I took a deep breath and looked up at him.

"I'm sorry about how I acted last night, but…thank you for…taking care of me. I was definitely not thinking straight."

"Definitely. But hey, you were just lucky. I would usually cave to a woman begging me to be with her for the night."

"Eh heh heh. Yes, lucky," I said, and then under my breath added," Or insulted?"

"Hmm?"

"Nothing. Okay, well. I'm gonna go now. So, bye."

I dashed out of the room before he could say anything else. The day turned out relatively boring compared with yesterday. It seemed as if everyone was out of the house by the evening. Johnny was out looking at Fantastic Five marketing merchandise, Ben was somewhere, and Susan and Reed had gone out to give Reed a break. It was obviously a date. It was about time, too. I was in my room working on a book idea when I heard Johnny's bedroom door slam. I knew Susan and Reed had gotten home before him, but that was an angry slam. I went through the bathroom and found him pulling off his shirt. It didn't faze me one bit.

"Johnny?" I asked as he pulled a shirt and a jacket out of the closet with a vengeance.

He turned and glared over at me.

"I'm going out," he said, pulling the shirt on," I hate this place. Everyone here is so stiff. They don't know how to have fun and they are always in my business and telling me what to do."

He pulled on his jacket.

"You sound like a whiny teenager," I laughed.

The glare he sent me stopped my laughter. He stomped over to me.

"You're just like them. You used to be fun, but now you're trying to make me be someone I'm not."

I gaped at him.

"It isn't like that. Johnny where are you going?"

"To that new bar," he responded, slamming his door as he left.

I sighed and backed into the bathroom. Looking in the bathroom mirror, I cringed at my appearance. I remembered the days when I actually tried to look nice. Today I was wearing dumpy sweat pants and an oversized shirt. I'd been decent when I went out yesterday, a normal miniskirt, tank top, and jacket, but nothing special. "You used to be fun…" Somehow, that sparked a strange fire in my colder than normal body. Throwing off my clothes I ran to my closet and pulled out my favorite dress. It was an icy blue, body hugging dress that barely reached my thighs. Slipping into it, I pulled out the matching heels and got out my make-up kit. Within fifteen minutes, I'd done my make-up and my hair. I went for the natural make-up and hair styles. It was just who I was. Grabbing a shawl, I grabbed my car keys and went down to my electric blue sports car. I'd splurged on my car more than I had on anything else, but I loved it dearly. It took me no time at all to get to the new bar. As I walked in, I found Johnny surrounded by girls and laughing. I wasn't very surprised at all. I smirked as I spotted a few guys checking me out. With that extra confidence boost, I went over to the bar and got a drink. I swore to myself it was the only one I would let myself have all night. I moved off to an empty table and sat down. People started surrounding me and asking me questions. Humoring them, I glanced over and saw that Johnny had noticed half of his audience was gone. I smirked in satisfaction as he got up and come over only to be speechless as he saw me. Those in the area looked at the two of us.

"Oh, hi, Johnny. Having fun? Thanks for telling me about this place."

I watched contentedly as he struggled over words. I'd dressed the part of the girl he would typically pick out to take home and I'd apparently done it well. He eventually recovered and put his normal smirk on his face.

"Anytime. I'm having a blast with all these amazing people, isn't that right?"

The people in the bar all cheered. I smiled. Fake. I saw their smiling faces and their interest in us, but I could see what Johnny couldn't. They were amused by the celebrities. They wanted to know them. They just wanted to get closer. They didn't care about us one little bit. Johnny escaped back to his table. We were there for a good couple of hours. Eventually, Johnny started doing tricks and I watched from my seat with disinterest. When he was done, he went over to the girl sitting at my table with me.

"Hey. Johnny Storm. Human Torch. Listen, wanna get outta here?"

I snorted and turned away from him and the girl. I caught Johnny giving me an annoyed look. It was pathetic if that was the best he could do. The girl just smiled as a moderately mean looking guy placed a glass down in front of the girl along with one for himself. I grinned.

"Is this your boyfriend?" he asked, smiling at the guy.

"That all you do? Bar tricks, stealing chicks?"

I glanced at Johnny. Now was not a time for him to be stupid.

"Johnny."

He took a drink from a shot and putting it down, he lit it on fire. A huge flame flew up from the glass before I iced it out. Everyone in the bar who saw it exclaimed in shock. The people closer even jumped back. I slid off my seat and stood beside Johnny. I was about to tell him off, but the girl he'd been trying to pick up beat me to it.

"What are you doing? You could have burned somebody."

Johnny stared at her, not knowing what to say as she moved over to her boyfriend and they headed for the exit.

"You know if I had your powers, I would be doing something with it. Not wasting my time doing cheap tricks in bars."

A few people followed their example and left behind them. I put a hand on Johnny's arm, but he shoved me away. I lost some balance on my heels and accidentally backed into a guy.

"Oh, I'm so-"

"Watch it, ice bitch, before you hurt somebody too. You're probably just like your friend over there. A freak."

I was so surprised by his hostility that I just backed away, but Johnny stepped in front of me.

"Don't you dare talk to her like that," he said, darkly," She didn't do anything to you so shut up."

Johnny took my wrist and we left the bar. I knew how angry he was by the heat of his hand. It felt like it was going to set on fire at any moment. We stopped walking by my car.

"Johnny?" I asked, cautiously.

He wouldn't look at me.

"Aren't you going to say it? Go ahead and tell me that you told me. That Sue and Reed and even Ben told me."

I gave him a sympathetic look.

"No, I'm not. I'm not your mother. I'm not your sister. I'm…"

My sentence trailed off since I wasn't really anything to Johnny. Well, other than an ex-girlfriend. He looked up at me and I gave him a small smile.

"We may be freaks-"

"That guy. I want to go back there and-"

I put a hand on his jacket sleeve, quieting him.

"Thank you for sticking up for me, Johnny, but it doesn't matter. We're not superheroes. We're not fighting evil. We're just looking to be normal again. Now you see why. And yeah, it's kind of cool having powers, but all I ever do is put out fires. Honestly, I shouldn't have even been there. I'm a writer and barely a good scientist. I shouldn't have been at the space station and I shouldn't even be part of this group. It should be the Fantastic Four, not Five."

Johnny leaned down and looked at my face really hard.

"You are loved by every person in our group. You belong with us, Candace. You and I may get on each other's nerves sometimes, as I will admit I can be a problem child, but you're always there. And I know you're not going away. I mean, I thought I'd never see you again and get to apologize. But you came back. And then yesterday, you didn't have to follow me, but you did. And tonight, you proved me wrong. I wasn't serious about you not being fun. You are, you really are. And honestly, I'm glad you're here. I don't know what I'd do if I were stuck with all those stiffs back at home."

The two of us laughed lightly. I put my hand on my car.

"I do forgive you, Johnny. We were young, I guess. Things happen. I suppose, we just weren't supposed to be together. You went off to NASA and I went on to writing."

Johnny looked at the sky.

"You think there's still a chance someday? Me and you…a couple?"

"Hmm…maybe not right now. You're still too much of a free spirit for a girl like me, but maybe someday. We can be friends. I miss the time when we were friends."

Johnny gave me a smile and kissed my cheek.

"I do, too. It's a deal."

I smiled back at him, but not before pointing my finger at him.

"I'm still going to make fun of you."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

Suddenly, the cities lights went off and the only light came from the top floor of the Baxter Building. Johnny and I looked up at our home in alarm. I clicked the car door open as the lights came back on.

"Time to go," I said and we both jumped into the car.


	9. Chapter 9

When Johnny and I got up to the Baxter Building, the only person we saw was Susan. He ran into Reed's lab which had been pretty beat up. Johnny called out to his sister as we ran in. There was no sign of Reed, but Ben was passed out on a metal shelf. And he was back to his own self.

"The machine worked!" Susan exclaimed, feeling Ben's neck for a pulse," Give me a hand."

The three of us helped pulled Ben to his feet. He groaned in pain as we moved him.

"You all right, Ben? Put him on the step," Johnny said.

We all moved him over to the step and let him sit down. We sat down around him and Johnny kept talking.

"What happened, big guy? I leave you for five minutes-"

Ben sighed.

"The machine. Vic used it on himself. He was affected by the cloud like us."

We all were a bit surprised by this news. Susan looked at Ben with concern.

"Where's Reed?"

"Vic must have taken him."

Ben looked up at the top floor, causing us to do the same thing. There was a huge hole in the glass window up there. We all gaped at it. Leaving Ben sitting on the step, I led Susan and Johnny out to inspect the balcony. Even the outside showed signs of damage. There had definitely been some sort of fight between Reed and Victor. Suddenly a loud sound rent through the air, causing the three of us to turn. There was a heat-sensing missile aiming straight for us. Susan and I both looked at Johnny, who looked down at himself.

"Oh, no."

He understood that it was aiming for him as he had the highest body temperature on the Baxter Building, much less the entire world.

"We gotta get out of here," I told Susan.

"I got an idea," Johnny said, looking down at the streets below.

I stared at him in alarm.

"Don't even think about it," Susan tried to command him.

"Never do."

He jumped and Susan and I ran to the edge.

"Johnny, no!" we both shouted, watching him plummet for stories toward the waiting pavement.

The missile immediately followed him instead of hitting the Baxter Building. Neither of us could turn away as he got closer to the ground. At the last moment his whole body covered in flames and he sailed sideways before going upwards. He was flying. The two of us watching stared in shock before turning back inside. Ben had gotten up and was leaning on a railing.

"We have to help Reed," he said.

We reached him and Susan put her hands on his shoulders.

"It's too dangerous for you now. You have to stay here. Candace, find Johnny."

I sighed and put my hands up.

"Forget my cousin! I need to be a human extinguisher."

Running back to the balcony, I climbed up onto the railing and looked down at the city.

"Think, Candy, think…you've read enough books and comics to think of _something,_ right?"

Instantly, it came to me. The "Iceman" comics.

"Thank you, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby!"

Putting my hands out in front of me and created an ice slide. Lowering the temperature on my body till I was covered in ice, I stepped out onto the slide and screamed as I went sliding. I luckily maintained the slide as I regained my composure. Eventually it became pretty fun. Looking around, I spotted a trash barge completely on fire out on the river in the distance. It took me no time to slide out there.

"Johnny?" I shouted, looking around in the dark water.

I heard the sounds of splashing and saw Johnny swimming for the shore. Sliding over to him, he didn't know what was happening until I'd pulled him up and brought the two of us to the shore. After cooling the barge, I waited as Johnny steam dried him from the water. He looked at me.

"I didn't know you read comic books," he commented, watching my slide melting.

I shrugged with a smile.

"I was such a beautiful nerd."

"Still are."

"Should I thank you or slap you?"

Johnny looked up at the sky.

"I probably travel faster than you do. Think you'll melt if I flame on and carry you?"

I extended an arm to him and he put his arm on flame. He grabbed my wrist. I felt nothing but warmth. The ice didn't melt and it felt as warm as if I was standing out in the sun on a summer day. Slightly annoying, but not uncomfortable.

"Alright," Johnny said, turning his back to me," Arms around my neck and hold on."

I hesitated.

"This feels stupid…"

"Do you want to save Reed or not?"

I groaned and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Flame on!" he shouted and he took off into the sky.

I did my best not to choke him as we headed to a disturbed area of the town. There were crashed cars, people watching a huge scene, and a certain Victor Von Doom facing off against our friends and family. Johnny and I landed on the outside as he threw a fireball and I threw a snowball at the jerk.

"You missed us," Johnny glared.

Ben got up from some broken pavement as we stood facing Victor. I looked over at Ben, seeing he was a rock man again.

"Had a little relapse, huh?" Johnny asked," Welcome back."

Victor looked around at all of us.

"This is gonna be fun."

He lifted up his arms and electricity surged from the lampposts straight to him. The whole place lit up like a light show. People wisely ran for cover. Doom knocked out Johnny and Ben with some electricity. He tried to get Susan, but she put up a shield.

"I can't hold it!" she shouted.

Reed grabbed a mailbox and threw it at him. I threw a huge chunk of ice his way at the same time. He was hit, but it only distracted him for a moment. He tried to attack Reed, but my cousin rolled into a ball and then wrapped himself like a sheet around Doom. He looked over at Johnny.

"Johnny! Supernova!"

"I thought we agreed that was bad!"

"NOW!"

Johnny took off as Reed extended himself to Ben, who pulled him off of Doom as Johnny began to heat up and circle. He was creating a huge pillar of fire in the middle of the area. Reed looked over at Susan.

"Sue! Think you can contain it?"

Susan's shield went up the length of the pillar Johnny had created. Apparently it was tough to contain was her nose started to bleed. When Johnny fell out of the pillar, Susan let go of the shield as the flames died and Dr. Doom stood in the middle of the burned road. His metal body was super heated and he was melting a little.

"Is that the best you can do? A little heat?" he sneered.

"Time for your lesson- Chem 101," Reed told him," What happens when you rapidly cool hot metal?"

Ben kicked off the top of a fire hydrant and the water went soaring out the top. Reed looked at me and nodded. Ben put a foot on the stream of water, aiming it at Reed who configured himself to pour water on Dr. Doom as I shot ice at him in a steady stream. He tried to move but became completely frozen as the metal cooled. Ben bent the fire hydrant over to keep the water in again so it didn't keep pouring out. We all stared at his unmoving body in the middle of the destroyed road. Reed pulled me into a hug as I sighed with relief. Letting him go, he went over to Susan and I went over to Ben and Johnny. Ben gave me a huge rocky hug that almost took the breath out of me. Johnny and I looked at each other awkwardly before he winked at me, making me roll my eyes. We all walked over to Susan and Reed as people who had been watching came out and cheered. Johnny put a hand on Reed's shoulder and an arm around mine as we looked around.

"Man, I love this job," he said.

"Job, huh?" Ben asked.

Reed looked over at them while I smiled.

"Well, we do have the suits."

We all smiled as the reporters came out to ask us questions. Johnny, Ben, and I waved at people as Reed and Susan did most of the talking.

Author's Note: Not done for a long shot. Next chapter will be up soon, hopefully. But I feel I must add something.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Fantastic Four OR ICEMAN! Only my character. She just happens to be pretty much like him as far as powers go. Haha!


	10. Chapter 10

A thank you party to the Fantastic Five was thrown a few days later on a ship. It was turning out to be rather entertaining. Ben invited his new girlfriend Alicia Masters, something Reed and I were very happy about. Susan took a liking to her instantly and they spent a lot of their time on the ship talking. Johnny was of course surrounded by girls, but I was amused by the jealous looks he sent my way as I danced and talked to just as many guys. Halfway through the party, Ben and Alicia came over to me.

"Look out there," he nodded.

Looking, I saw that Reed was down on his knee, finally proposing to Susan. I squealed excitedly as we all surged over to the door to watch, quietly. While we watched, Johnny slid in beside me with a big smile on his face.

"About time right?" he whispered.

I nodded, my hands clasped in front of my mouth with happiness. When they kissed, we heard Ben chuckling.

"Aww. She's kissin' him."

Murmurs went around and the couple finally noticed everyone watching them. I looked up as Ben looked over at Johnny while people moved away from the door.

"Hey. No more wisecracks about the way I look," he told him.

Johnny grinned.

"Hey, call me Mr. Sensitivity."

I raised an eyebrow at Johnny before he winked at me. He started walking toward the deck where Susan and Reed were.

"Okay! Wide load coming through! Everybody move! He's huge!"

Ben growled and stomped after him. Alicia took my shoulder as we followed them.

"Come here, Mr. Sensitive!"

"Flame on!"

Johnny took off into the sky as Alicia and I smiled. Ben sighed as Alicia put a hand on his shoulder.

"Show off!" he shouted.

Reed and Susan appeared beside us as we looked up to Johnny putting the Fantastic Five logo up in the sky.

"Like he's anything else," I commented, going back inside," I'm getting another drink."

Reed looked back at me with a smile.

"And this is number?"

I stuck a tongue at him.

"It'll be number two. You don't think of me very highly, do you?"

While I went back to the bar, Johnny came back and stood beside me. I shook my head, taking a sip from my new drink.

"You should put something on over that."

"I will. Come with me for a second?"

"Hmm?"

Johnny turned me toward the stairs to the lower decks and led me forward with his hands on my shoulders. Downstairs he sat me down on a couch as he pulled on an extra set of clothes he had brought with him and made sure the door was closed to the upstairs. I watched him over my glass.

"Johnny? You're being creepy, what are you doing?"

He smiled and sat beside me on the couch, his arm behind me.

"Don't want any rumors starting about the two of us."

I snorted.

"Yeah, because that would _never_ happen while we're the only single members of the group."

Johnny laughed as he pulled something out of the inside of the jacket pocket he was now wearing. He handed it to me and took my drink from my hands.

"Here. I've…held on to this for quite a few years. Since we're friends again, I was hoping that you'd like it."

I looked at him in surprise as I tugged at the ribbon. Opening up the case, there was a pretty gold locket sitting inside. I pulled it out and looked at it. The heart was engraved with a rose design.

"Oh, Johnny," I breathed as I opened it.

Inside was a picture of the two of us from high school. Luckily it was a picture from before we'd started dating, because it would have been too soon for me.

"It was going to be your graduation gift. But…well…stuff happened."

"It's beautiful."

Johnny took it from my hand and put it around my neck for me.

"Glad you like it. It had taken me forever to think of something."

Feelings swelled in my chest. Feelings that used to be commonplace when I was with Johnny, but made me nervous right now for having them. Things were different now, I couldn't just feel this way whenever he did something nice. They weren't genuine feelings, right? He seemed to notice the problem I was having and grinned at me.

"Falling for me again?"

"NO!" I blushed," It's just…been a few months since a guy has done something sweet like this for me."

Johnny laughed, loudly.

"You mean it's been a few months since you've had sex."

"Jonathan Lowell Spencer Storm!"

"I can't believe you put out that mouthful! I'm sure no one will notice us missing for a twenty more minutes, right?"

My jaw dropped at his suggestion.

"I'm not a whore! I can't believe you'd even sugg-"

Johnny held up his hands.

"Woah, I am not saying you are. I'm just saying, you totally want it. I totally want it. Why not? Seriously, no harm done and we'd "technically" be friends with benefits?"

I gaped at him as he started to grin.

"You're not saying no…"

He leaned in close to me. My eyes were wide as my brain started to lose its ability to function. He kept coming toward me and my body refused to stop him.

"What the hell?" I murmured as his lips pressed against mine in a very fiery kiss.

Thirty minutes later, Johnny and I were straightening out our clothes and I re-did my hair. I sighed as I followed Johnny upstairs, a huge smile stuck on his face that wasn't leaving anytime soon.

"I can't believe we did that!" I hissed up at him.

"Are you kidding? That was fantastic! Who knew you could make your ice so cold that fire couldn't even burn the furniture!"

He held out a hand to me and helped me climb the stairs in my heels, letting me through the door before him. I turned and clamped a hand to his mouth.

"Shush! This was a onetime thing."

He winked at me.

"You say that, but I get a feeling that you'll be back. I know I'll be back for you."

He brushed by me with a kiss on the cheek, making me groan. I sighed internally. The sad part was that he was probably right.


	11. Chapter 11

I can't lie and say that over the course of almost a year Johnny and I never caved in to our…urges. It was more times than I was proud of, but it wasn't a lot thankfully. Maybe…five times? The last being about a month ago. Currently, Ben, Johnny, and I were stuck signing autographs and taking pictures at the airport. I say stuck and Ben might agree. Johnny was enjoying himself. Reed and Sue were busy watching the monitors to watch what flights were on time and which weren't. By the time most of us were released by our fans, Susan and Reed were discussing their wedding. Johnny and I collapsed onto chairs to wait for our flight. We couldn't help but hear what the two were saying.

"It's happening again, isn't it?" Susan asked.

The poor woman, I knew, was getting somewhat annoyed. Things kept coming up that made her and Reed's wedding need to be postponed. Saving the world was a full time job. And that sometimes made it a pain in the ass.

"No," Reed told her adamantly," We're not postponing anything, not this time. This is gonna be the wedding you've always dreamed of. And I'm not gonna let anything get in the way of that…not even the mysterious transformation of matter at the subatomic level."

I rolled my eyes as I heard Susan giggle at that.

"That's the most romantic thing you've ever said to me."

As they kissed, Johnny and I both couldn't help but laugh. He shook his head.

"Which is really pathetic if you think about it."

I held my palm out to Johnny and he gave me a high five as our family members glared at us. I think my maturity level had started decreasing as Johnny and I had gotten along better and better. But, it was kind of fun this way. An airport employee walked over to Reed.

"Dr. Richards, I'm very sorry, but it seems we're overbooked. We do have some seats available in coach, though."

I raised an eyebrow at Reed who had looked at me. I nodded toward Ben, who was taking a picture with a few kids. He looked at Ben before looking back at the airport employee.

"That should be fine."

As we got into our seats on the plane, I was placed by the window seat next to Susan. Johnny looked at us from the row of seats in front of where we were sitting.

"So what do you guys think about trying to get an endorsement from an airline?" he asked," Get us a private jet."

"I think we have enough endorsement deals," Susan said, leaning back in her seat.

Johnny laughed making us raise our eyebrows at him.

"That is funny. But seriously, Reed, it could help you subsidize all your little inventions."

"No, thanks," my cousin responded.

A lady got Johnny's attention as she needed to get to her seat. Johnny slipped out into the aisle. He began heading out.

"Johnny, where are you going?" I asked.

"I don't fly coach."

"Oh, cause that isn't spoiled."

He disappeared as the flight began. He was apparently flying back home. Once back, I spent a lot of time learning about the global weather disturbances. They were rather strange. Snow in Egypt and a bay in Japan completely freezing over. It wasn't natural. I was going to search for possible reasons for the activity on my laptop but Johnny came into my room.

"Follow," was all he said.

I looked at my laptop and then back at the now empty doorway. I sighed and followed Johnny to Reed's office. Our whole house had been redone after the endorsements had come in. The place looked really awesome. Johnny walked over to Reed, who was sitting at his desk, and Susan who was standing beside her fiancée.

"Hey, guys, new uniforms just showed up. What do you think?"

He held up the outfit and we all cringed at its appearance. It was covered in endorsement labels.

"Ew," was all I had to say.

Johnny's smile fell.

"Ugh," as Susan's response," I think there's no way we're wearing that, Johnny."

She walked out of the room. Johnny turned and shouted after her.

"What do you have against capitalism?"

I went over and stood behind Reed.

"Capitalism is apparently a fashion don't," I told him.

I was looking at a huge invention that Reed kept under a white sheet. Johnny seemed to notice it as well.

"What's this?" he asked, walking over to it.

"Just a little hobby of mine," Reed replied.

"Yeah? Would it make a good toy or is something, uh…science-y?"

"A little of both."

Johnny tried to peek under the sheet, but Reed stopped him.

"Uh-uh."

The younger male raised his arms in surrender and stared at Reed as he typed on his handheld. His thumbs extending beyond normal length and moving freakishly fast.

"You know, I've always been both impressed and disgusted at that," Johnny noted.

Reed laughed.

"Yeah, Sue says I'm addicted to it."

I shook my head at him as he got up and moved into his lab.

"I wonder why she'd say that," I muttered as Johnny and I followed him.

"Hey, Candy, Johnny. Keep it quiet, but, uh…I've cross referenced and analyzed the global disturbances."

I took a seat in a chair by Reed.

"That's my cousin, always about a week ahead of me on research," I commented, winking at him.

He smiled as he continued.

"They're being caused by cosmic radiation not unlike the kind which gave us or powers."

"Wow, that's…really boring," Johnny said, taking a seat.

Johnny was definitely the most disinterested in science when it came to our group.

"So, listen," he went on," I have a very important wedding issue to talk to you about."

Johnny pushed himself across the lab to land between me and Reed in the rolling chair.

"Yeah, of course," Reed said, typing on his computer.

I had I feeling this issue was only important to Johnny. I was proven correct as the fire boy went on.

"Your bachelor party."

Reed's jaw dropped and he looked at Johnny. I got up out of my chair.

"Should I leave for this?" I asked.

I was about to, but Johnny grabbed my wrist and pulled me down onto his lap. I struggled to get up but he had a good grip on my waist. With a defeated sigh, I sat still.

"No. Seriously, Johnny," Reed said, wheeling himself across the lab.

"John."

"Huh?" both Reed and I asked.

"Focus testing showed that "Johnny" skewed a little young."

Reed and I exchanged a look from across the lab.

"Seriously, Johnny, no bachelor party. It's just not my kinda thing."

Johnny wheeled us across the lab to where Reed was. He looked up at me.

"Are you gaining weight? You feel heavier…"

I elbowed him in the stomach, making him grunt and apologize. He turned his attention back to Reed.

"Then do it for Ben. It means a lot to the big guy. You're gonna break his heart. He does have some sort of rock-like heart, doesn't he?"

Reed moved away from us again.

"I've got too much to do before the wedding. Frankly, I think Sue might have a problem with it."

Johnny moved us over to Reed once again.

"You know what I think Sue would have a problem with? If somebody told her that you were actually investigating global disturbances and cosmic radiation instead of actually focusing on the wedding, like you promised."

"That was low," I murmured to Johnny, but he just smirked.

Reed was suddenly quiet. After a moment, Reed smiled.

"A bachelor party could be fun."

"Yes!"

"But no exotic dancers."

Johnny's enthusiasm faltered a little, but agreed. I laughed and pumped a fist in the air.

"Yes!" I mocked.

Johnny raised an eyebrow at me. I knew that look. That was the "You're gonna pay" look. I leaped off his lap with a yelp and ran away as he came after me.


	12. Chapter 12

It was the night of Reed's bachelor party and I didn't understand why I had to be in attendance. Johnny said it was because Reed really didn't have any friends. Upon entering the club, there were hundreds of people that we definitely did not recognize. Music was blaring and most of the people were dancing. I notice some male eyes examine my short, sparkly red dress. It was my favorite halter dress and the skirt brushed comfortably against my knees. I'd been a little saddened by Reed's outfit. He had worn black dress pants with a blue button down and a black sweater over it. But it was Reed…and that was how he dressed. Ben had worn a nice black and gray shirt with dress pants. Johnny had gone flashy of course and had worn I pinstripe suit with a maroon button down shirt and had a pocket hankie to match. I was severely turned off by his huge silver buckle belt, but felt it added flare. He'd finished it all off with black sunglasses. The boy was a celebrity through and through. A group young girls came over and greeted our group. Reed was instantly worried.

"Johnny, we had a deal."

The younger boy shook his head and leaned closer to Reed.

"They're not exotic dancers."

He moved over to them, stood between them, and put his arms around their shoulders.

"They're just hot."

Ben looked at me and I just shook my head. Johnny and hot girls. Yeah…typical. One of the girls looked at Reed.

"You're Mr. Fantastic, aren't you? That's so awesome."

She moved over and put her hands around Reed's arm. I raised my eyebrows at my cousin, seeing him blush a little.

"Well, well," I murmured to Ben who turned and walked to the bar.

I felt bad for him. Girls didn't exactly seek him out and find him attractive. A bunch of girls were starting to swarm him now, so I backed away. I was taken by surprise as Johnny's hand slipped into mine. He tilted his head to his left and I followed him. He pulled me to the dance floor. As we danced, Johnny laughed, nodding to where Reed was sitting and talking to the girls.

"One of those girls is named Candy, you know."

"Ugh. My nickname makes a good stripper name. Now I feel weird."

Johnny pulled my back to his chest by putting his hands on my waist. As we danced he bent his mouth to my ear.

"You can strip for me anytime, peppermint stick. And may I say you look very dazzling in this dress. I'd still love to take you out of it."

Though I felt a familiar tingle go up my spine, I just laughed at him.

"I don't think so, you flirt."

After awhile, we went over to the bar to check on Ben. We found him smiling and watching as Reed took the dance floor. I was shocked as he was extending his arms and legs crazily while he danced with the girls. Johnny put a hand on Ben's shoulder.

"Guy really knows how to loosen up."

"You're not kidding."

I just giggled and watched my cousin dance. It was strange, creepy, and cool all wrapped into one. Ben suddenly turned his head pointed out to me and Johnny that Susan and a group of government officials had walked in. Johnny grabbed my waist and the three of us turned to lean against the bar where she wouldn't see us.

"Think it might be clobbering time," Ben mumbled to us.

Eventually Susan found us and we were all led into the kitchens to have a small discussion. I remembered one of the men who had come in with Susan. I'd been with Reed when he'd first met General Hager. The man was stern, unyielding, and did not really like scientists. He especially didn't regard Reed very highly as he had put down a defense system the General had wanted the government to use. I instantly caught Johnny checking out the female in the group and sighed internally. He was impossible.

"I'm only here, Dr. Richards, because I'm under direct orders from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Personally, I don't like the idea of sharing sensitive information with a civilian scientist, especially one who enjoys the public spotlight so much."

"Always a please to see you too, General," Reed responded with a forced smile.

I sat leaned back against the counters by Susan with a scowl on my face. The General loved to be politely rude.

"What can I do for you?" Reed asked.

The last person with the General had opened a laptop on the counter and left it.

"As you may know, there have been recent unusual occurrences all over the world. Officially, we've downplayed their significance to the public but we're concerned that these anomalies might pose a credible threat to our national security."

The female walked up and handed Reed some enlarged photos.

"These were taken by some of our spy satellites three days ago."

Glancing at the pictures, it looked like a silver comet flying through space.

"What is it?" Susan asked.

"We were hoping Dr. Richards could tell us," the General replied.

"I'm afraid I've never seen anything like it. Ben?"

He handed the pictures to his best friend.

"Well, I would say that it was a meteor, but the trails all wrong. This things giving off its own energy."

The laptop was slid over to Reed.

"Take a look at this," the General went on."

"These have been appearing in remote areas throughout the world since the events started," the female said," Field personnel estimate its diameter to be two hundred meters."

"If we're going to find out what this is all about," General Hager added," we need a way to locate and intercept that object."

Reed nodded thinking.

"It'd be possible to build a sensor, tie it into the Baxter Building satellite grid. And we can pinpoint the exact location of the object."

I glanced over at Susan, who looked sad again. Another thing had popped up in the way of the wedding. General Hager didn't seem to notice the sullen atmosphere.

"Good, so then you'll build the sensor for us, we'll tie that to the-"

Reed interrupted him.

"I'm afraid I can't."

We all looked at him in surprise.

"What?"

"You see, I'm getting married this Saturday. I just don't have the time."

"Richards, your country needs your help."

"Look, why don't you call Professor Jeff Wagner? He's head of the physics department at Brown. I'm sure he can help you."

General Hager gestured to his colleagues to pick up their things to leave.

"I expected more, Richards…even from you."

With that they left in a huff and Johnny of course followed to talk to the female. Ben and I headed out after Susan and Reed. The couple obviously wanted to be alone. Ben stopped at the bar.

"I'm going to hang out a bit longer, Candy. See you back at home?"

I smiled and nodded to him and walked out the door. I found Johnny standing alone on the curb, apparently surprised. As I walked over, I heard him talking to himself.

"Wow and you just…walked away. I was definitely still talking."

He heard me laugh at him from behind and he pouted at me. He came over and put his head on my shoulder.

"I got rejected, Candy!"

I patted his head.

"Aw, there, there. You deserve that every now and then."

He stood up again and faked a laugh.

"You're so witty."

I shrugged and began walking toward a taxi waiting nearby. Johnny followed and jumped into the backseat before the taxi headed for our home. It was silent as he brooded over his rejection. He didn't say anything until we reached our home at the top of the Baxter Building.

"Candace, you love me, don't you?"

I looked back and him and smiled.

"I'm not sleeping with you, dear."

He followed me to my room.

"Hey, you're prettier than her by _far_. Besides, we're in a non-exclusive relationship."

"It isn't even a relationship and you can't just come to me. I'm not a rebound girl or anything else of that type of nature."

"Friends with benefits _is _a relationship."

"Well, I'm kind of tired of it."

Johnny gasped dramatically as I took off my shoes and tossed them in my closet.

"You don't like me anymore?"

I pushed his chest gently and laughed.

"Sure, you're my buddy, but it isn't like you want to come home to only me at the end of every day for the rest of yourself. A girl kinda wants that in her life, you know? Just because I'm the Frost Queen doesn't mean I don't want to have a love of my life. Sometimes I wish I could be normal and get married and have a family someday."

I collapsed on my bed with a sigh. Johnny flopped down beside me after taking off his jacket and dropping it on the edge of my bed post.

"You don't like the single life?"

"It's fine for awhile, but it gets lonely. And sex doesn't fill the emptiness."

Johnny watched me for a moment as I stared up at the ceiling, lost in thoughts of what it would be like to have a family.

"You're right. You deserve that. I mean, I love you and I'd totally do that, but you don't trust me."

I scoffed and punched his shoulder.

"You're such a liar. You're a natural bachelor and sweet talker. Stop softening me up."

He smiled and rolled on top of me.

"You didn't deny that I love you," he noted, kissing my neck," Does that mean you know it? Do I express it well? Do you love me, too?"

"So many questions I would never answer," I giggled.

Johnny untied the halter string at the back of my neck.

"Johnny, I said I didn't want to," I whined, already unbuttoning his shirt.

I felt him smile into my neck.

"You lied," he hissed before biting my ear and growling seductively.

"You, Mr. Torch, just don't take no for an answer."

"It's just Torch to you, my darling peppermint, and you are absolutely correct."

And once again, I was swept away by Johnny "The Human Torch" Storm.


	13. Chapter 13

In the time before Saturday, all of us living in the Baxter Building, excluding Susan, had caught Reed working on the sensor for the General. On the day of the wedding, Johnny had brought a supermodel as his date. To his surprise, I'd gotten a male model for my date. People were crowded around the wedding building excitedly waiting to see the famous and even not so famous people in attendance. I thought it was nice that Susan was having a rooftop wedding. As I got out of my car with my date, I noticed Johnny giving a small speech on auctioning off his sister's wedding photos. I made a mental note to tell Susan to beat up her brother later. As my date and I walked past Johnny and his date with our arms linked, I heard a reporter ask his date a question.

"So what does it take to date the Human Torch?"

"Fireproof lingerie and a lot of aloe."

I got the attention of the pair and the reporters as I laughed.

"You could also turn yourself completely to ice as well."

Johnny's jaw dropped in shock as waved to the reporters who started scribbling excitedly on their notepads. We'd kept our personal lives under the radar, but I felt stirring the pot was a slightly entertaining way to go since today was a special day for the group. Going inside, both Johnny and I parted with our dates so that we could get dressed for the wedding. I slipped into a beautiful maroon dress that Susan had picked out for me and Alicia to wear as her bridesmaids. I met up with Alicia and Ben in the kitchen. Alicia was straightening out Ben's tie as Johnny came in. He walked into the room very quietly, trying not to let Alicia hear him. He wasn't even breathing. But of course…

"Hey, Johnny.

"Wow!" he said, looking at me," Does that amaze anyone else?"

I laughed at Alicia's amazing senses that bewildered us all. Johnny went over and wrapped his arms around my waist and laid his head on my shoulder from behind.

"How did she know it was me? I didn't say anything!"

Alicia went on to pin the white roses to Ben's jacket.

"Well, to be honest, you kind of smell like ash."

I smiled and Ben chuckled.

"She's right, you know," I agreed.

"You're late," Ben told Johnny," Even Candy got here on time and she came home at the same time as you did."

"Oh, let's not make today about me. It's Reed and Sue's big day. Let's give them the attention for a change."

Johnny pulled away and finished buttoning up his vest. I went over and leaned on the counter, watching Alicia and Ben act like the couple they were. I had to admit I was a little jealous. They had such a good relationship. I wanted something like that for myself. I could tell Johnny was watching them as well, him more out of interest than want. I turned away as they kissed and saw Johnny make a face. I hit him on the shoulder and he just shrugged. Alicia exited soon after with a goodbye to me and Johnny. After she left, he addressed the big guy.

"So, it seems like you and Alicia are doing well. Annoyingly so, in fact."

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Why would you of all people be annoyed?" I asked to no response.

"Yeah, I'm a lucky guy," Ben smiled, dreamily.

"Yeah, you are," Johnny grinned back," Question for you though. How do you guys, um-"

Johnny thought for a moment before snapping his fingers with his arms in a suggestive manner. Both Ben and I had the same reaction. Our jaws dropped and our eyes widened.

"Johnny!" I scolded.

"That's none of your business!" Ben shouted.

Johnny held up his hands as Ben moved toward him. I moved around the counter as Johnny began backing out of the room.

"All right. I'm just concerned. I'd hate to wake up one morning and find out she was killed in a rock slide."

He turned and ran away and my hand flew to my mouth, partially to keep me from smiling as well. Ben dashed after him.

"I'll show you a rockslide!"

I watched the two disappear with wide eyes. Moving upstairs to find Alicia before the wedding, I made sure to tell her what Johnny had done to upset Ben. After telling her, I remembered that I left my bouquet downstairs. After retrieving it, I found Alicia talking to Johnny when I got back. I waited outside the room as they talked. I know I shouldn't be eavesdropping, but I couldn't help myself.

"I think it really bothers you to see him really happy and in love. I think you're jealous."

I wrinkled my forehead in thought. Was he really? I knew I was.

"You think I'm jealous?" he almost laughed.

"Mm-hmm."

"Have you seen the women I've dated?"

"No."

I smiled as she laughed. Alicia was such a sport about giving blind jokes about herself.

"I can tell that the temperature rises higher than ever when Candace walks into a room you're already in. You're tone also softens more with hers than other girls. You can fool yourself but for so long, Torch. Just admit you want to be with her and only her."

I heard Ben come in with Susan at just that moment so I made my entrance from the other side as well. Susan looked stunning in a strapless white wedding dress with a beautiful train and veil.

"Hey! It's the bride of stretchy man!" Johnny announced.

"Don't start," Susan smiled.

"Eh, don't listen to him. You look gorgeous," Ben told her.

With that, I followed Ben and Alicia out to the wedding after a wink to Susan. Reed waited at the altar, nervously shuffling his feet. When I reached him, I gave him a pat on the back.

"Breathe, Reed."

"Right, right," he answered with a sigh.

We smiled at each other.

"I'm really happy for you Reed. I just hope one day I can be just as happy with someone as the two of you are together."

"It means a lot that you're here, Candy. Thank you…for being as close as a sister to me."

He gave me a kiss on the cheek before I moved over to the female side beside Alicia. We could hear the annoying news helicopter circling above, but there was nothing we could do about that. Suddenly, Reed's PDA went off. Ben and I frowned at him.

"Reed, will you shut your cell phone off?" Ben grumbled at him as he pulled it out of his suit to check.

"Actually this is a-"

Suddenly, the wedding march started and we all turned to look at Susan coming down the aisle, her arm linked with Johnny. Reed subtly slipped his PDA back into his suit pocket. We all smiled watching them get closer. Ben even started to sniffle a bit. Just as the minister started the ceremony, the helicopter came closer.

"Sue and Reed, congratulations on your wedding!" the people in the helicopter said.

I shook my head as most of the people laughed. As the minister started again, he got a bit farther before Reed's PDA started beeping again. This time I couldn't help but sigh. Reed seemed suddenly rushed. He kept asking the minister to skip to the end, but his PDA began to get even more annoying. Suddenly it got really windy and the helicopter started moving really strangely. I looked out over the rooftops and saw that the lights on many of the buildings had gone out. Electricity had gone down for some reason. The helicopter began to fall straight toward the wedding.

"Great!" I shouted, tossing aside the bouqet.

The wedding guests scattered and the helicopter came down, taking out rows and rows of seats. I threw up an ice wall to keep the helicopter away from the guests. Reed saved a few stragglers but extending his arm and pulling them to safety. Susan put up a shield to keep the flying vehicle from crashing into the wedding pavilion, but it turned and the tail headed straight for Alicia. Luckily, Ben got it and ripped it off before it could hurt her. There was a strange sound and we looked up to see a streak of silver zoom by in the sky.

"Johnny," Reed said.

The young man looked down at his suit.

"This is Dolce."

Reed made a face at him before he sighed and jumped off the roof and burst into flames. He flew off as Susan collapsed on the step of the wedding pavilion in tears. The place was completely trashed and there was no way they could continue the wedding. Once again, their wedding had been postponed. It was so much worse this time though, since they had gotten to the ceremony. I sat down beside Susan and let her cry on my shoulder. Maybe getting married was something that was harder than I thought.


	14. Chapter 14

Later that day in Reed's lab, we all listened to Johnny talk about his run in with what caused the silver streak. We all included General Hager and a few other government people. He's apparently just traveled back from the Middle East somewhere as he'd been dumped there by whatever…whoever…it was.

"It looked like a man, but completely covered in silver," he told us," and it was flying this, like- like a surfboard type thing. I know that sounds crazy."

Ben laughed loudly as Susan gave Johnny some water before sitting down beside him. I stood next to Reed trying to imagine something like what Johnny described.

"Oh, no, not at all," he joked sarcastically," So, did you follow the man to Lollipop Land or to Rainbow Junction?"

"Look, I know what I saw."

Reed intervened before he got too upset.

"Thank you. It's all right, Johnny. Whatever this things physical appearance is it has the ability to convert matter and energy."

"So it caused the anomalies," General Hager concluded.

This time I jumped in to General Hager's surprise.

"It seems to radiate cosmic energy when it exerts itself, randomly affecting matter. There is a possibility it isn't doing this on purpose?"

Reed shook his head.

"Evidently this…entity…this…Silver Surfer, didn't want to be detected. IT destroyed the sensor. That means it knows what its doing."

"It knew it was being monitored?"Susan asked.

"And traced it back here," Reed agreed," We're dealing with something highly resourceful."

Johnny got up with a groan. He looked a little beat up. I didn't blame him since he got dropped halfway between here and space.

"Are you feeling okay?" Susan asked her brother.

"Yeah. I just- I got to walk this off."

He left with Susan following behind him to make sure he left okay. I looked back at Reed who looked at the General.

"We have to destroy this thing before it attacks again," the General said, "Richards, find me another way to track it."

With that they left. I went to find Johnny and see if he really was doing as well as he said he was. I found him up on the roof of the Baxter Building looking down at the street. I leaned against the railing beside him.

"Doing okay? Rough day."

Johnny sighed.

"Yeah…I just…feel a little bit out of it, you know? I wanna try flying again."

I blinked at him.

"What? Honestly, you don't look so good, maybe you should wait?"

He ignored me and jumped off the roof.

"JOHNNY!" I screamed as he didn't flame on all the way and plummeted to the ground.

I ran down to the front of the Baxter Building, meeting Susan halfway as she had seen Johnny falling through the living room window. We found him leaning against a lamppost looking upset.

"Johnny? Johnny, are you okay?" Susan asked.

"I don't know," he said, weakly," I feel really strange since my run-in with surfer boy."

"Maybe we should get you checked out," Susan replied, putting a hand to feel his forehead.

I watched in shock as the two of them jerked and a strange wave flowed from where they had touched. Suddenly, Susan's arms were on fire and she started shrieking.

"Why'd you do that?" she screamed, trying to shake off the fire.

"I didn't do anything! Stop, drop, and roll! Stop, drop, and roll! Oh my God! Sue!"

Susan's whole body became covered in flames. Johnny and I looked at each other in a panic, not knowing what to do. We were at a loss for words as she started flying into the air.

"Just hang on. I'll get you, okay? Flame on!"

I did a double take as he was there and then disappeared.

"Johnny?"

"What? Why am I not flying?"

People started bumping into to him.

"You're invisible."

"I'm what? Oh, no…"

Susan started coming lower, still screaming her lungs off. People thought she was Johnny and started taking pictures. Reed suddenly appeared by my side.

"Sue, Candy, how did this happen?"

"I touched Johnny, and then this!" she screamed at him.

"Well where is Johnny?"

I looked to my side as a voice come from the empty air.

"Here."

Reed turned.

"Try it again."

"GET ME DOWN!" Susan screamed even louder.

Johnny ran over and grabbed her arm. It happened again and Johnny was visible and sadly…so was Susan. But this time she wasn't in flames. Being on fire had burned off all her clothes. People with cameras started taking pictures and some men whistled. Reed pushed his way to Susan and I saw that Johnny sighed, feeling better with his own powers being back. Reed pushed away the people with cameras and Susan disappeared and I assumed ran up to the Baxter Building. Reed turned to me and Johnny.

"Lab, now."

After going back, Reed took some blood samples from Susan and Johnny. After examining them, he turned to us.

"All of Susan's results are normal. But Johnny's-"

"Johnny's are what?" Johnny asked, worriedly.

Reed looked like an excited little schoolboy doing his first experiment. Apparently, Johnny's were special right now.

"Your encounter with the Silver Surfer has affected your molecules. They're…in a constant state of flux."

"Is that bad?" he asked.

"Well, it caused you to temporarily switch powers with Sue. Ideally, I'd like to run some more tests."

Ben put down the slushie he had been drinking while listening.

"Would you like a volunteer?" he asked, moving toward Johnny.

We all started shouting "NO!" and Johnny jumped onto the counter in protest.

"Hey! This is serious."

Ben turned to Reed and sighed.

"I just wanted to give him a hug."

I snorted and backed Ben away from Johnny a tad.

"I'm sure, buddy," I said.

Susan sighed.

"We don't know the extent of his condition yet."

"It could be progressive, it could be degenerative," Reed listed off.

"It could be fun," Ben said, putting a hand on Johnny's shoulder.

Reed and I tried to stop him but it was too late. Ben suddenly had little flames pop up and singe his clothing while Johnny became all rock.

"Hey, it's me. I'm back!" Ben shouted gleefully.

Johnny was too stunned to say anything as he poked his arms. I couldn't help laughing into my hand at the sight of him. He grabbed a metal container on the counter to look at himself. He just about died.

"Oh…my…GOD! Come on! We just said this was serious!"

Ben began laughing a little as well.

"Oh, yeah, serious."

Johnny looked at himself and almost threw the metal can.

"Oh, you got to be kidding me!"

Ben started playing with fire as Reed was completely enthralled by turn of events.

"Reed, you better be able to fix this," Johnny said.

"I'm right on it. Trust-"

Ben threw a fireball at Johnny.

"Ben, stop it!" Susan and I scolded.

He laughed.

"I'm starting to see why you like that. Ha!"

Johnny glared at him and started moving forward with his hand outstretched. Ben started backing away and protesting, but Johnny eventually touched him and then they switched back to the way they had been.

"Aw, crap," Ben sighed.

Johnny continued to glare at him

"That's not funny. What am I supposed to do in the meantime?"

"Just, uh, try to keep your distance from us," Reed replied," If you touch anyone, the least damaging might be Candy since the dynamics of your powers work the same way."

I turned and made a face at Reed.

"Thanks, Reed. "Don't touch anyone, just mess with Candy's DNA. No big deal!""

He gave me an apologetic look as Johnny walked out of the room unhappily. Ben called after him.

"You and me are gonna be spending a whole lot of time together, pal."

We shook our heads at Ben before dispersing. Reed and Susan went to work on Johnny's problem while I went to my room and Ben went to the living room.


	15. Chapter 15

I had been napping when my bedroom door banged open. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes I looked up and groaned as Johnny stomped into the room.

"God, Johnny…" I whined, sitting up," What's wrong?"

"They're quitting on us. Sue and Reed are going to leave the team to "raise a family" after this Silver Surfer stuff is over."

I sighed and moved over to the edge of my bed.

"So? This isn't the best place to raise a family."

"Yeah, but they could at least tell us to our faces instead of hiding things from us."

I glared at him.

"Look, when the time is right, they will tell us."

Johnny sat on my bed and pouted.

"Ugh…"

I smiled.

"Look, Johnny, maybe they're not sure about it. They could even change their minds. We should support them no matter what they choose. It's their lives and they deserve to live it the way they want."

Johnny glanced over at me.

"Are you saying that because you'd rather not be here?"

I laughed.

"It started out that way, but I enjoy living here now. And if it ends up being just the three of us, well…it'll be tough but we'll still all have each other, right? Besides, Sue and Reed are family and we love them no matter what."

Apparently, he wasn't persuaded. He got up and went back out to the hallway.

"I'm going to tell Ben. Maybe he'll have the correct response."

I got up and followed him. Ben was lifting weights while Alicia sat on the couch. Johnny and I moved into the room and sat down. Johnny on one of the exercise machines near Ben and me on the couch next to Alicia.

"They're breaking up the team," he announced.

"Huh?" Ben asked, confused.

"Reed and Sue- I just overheard them. They want a nice, normal, boring-ass life. No more Fantastic Five."

Ben dropped the weights back into their place.

"Well, what do they expect us to do? Keep it going, just the three of us?"

Johnny scoffed. I sighed as Ben had reacted just the way Johnny had wanted him to.

"And call ourselves what? The Terrific Trio?"

"When were they gonna tell us?" Ben demanded.

Alicia spoke up.

"They'll tell you when they're ready to tell you. It's their decision, not yours."

I smiled at the two.

"See? Alicia and I are on the same page here."

"You can't be mad at them for doing what makes them happy," she added with a smile.

It was then that the door opened and Reed stepped into the room.

"Guys, we've got a serious problem."

We got up and followed Reed to the lab where Susan was already waiting for us. Reed set up his computer to show us the problem.

"I've been cross-referencing the Surfer's radiation through every astronomical database. Altair 7, Rigel 3, Vega 6."

"He's been to all these planets?" I asked in surprise.

"And now they're lifeless, barren, some even shattered. Everywhere the Surfer goes, eight days later, the planet dies."

"And how are we gonna stop him?" Ben asked," We don't even know where he is."

Reed sighed, not having an answer. Johnny looked over at me and I shrugged. Susan looked prepared to panic, but she looked at Reed.

"What about the craters?"

Reed in put the data for the craters and we stared in surprise at the screen. A common equation popped up for all of them.

"They're appearing in a numerical sequence. The last crater was formed in Greenland so…the next in the sequence should be…latitude: 51 degrees, 30 minutes north; longitude: 0 degrees, seven minutes west."

He turned and ran to the phone to call the General.

"Road trip," I announced, as we all scattered to prepare to leave.

The next day we were in a helicopter on our way to the London Eye, which was inconveniently the place where the Silver Surfer should be striking next. Reed looked out the window worriedly.

"When he surfaces, you've got to move the fight away from the crowd," he told us.

"No, he's too fast to be contained. When I see silver, I'm hitting him," Johnny responded.

I exchanged an uncomfortable glance with my cousin and his fiancée.

"Wait, you can't do that. We've got to stick to the plan and work as a team."

"Oh, so we're a team now? That's new to me."

I turned and glared at the back of his head as he sat in the passenger seat of the helicopter whereas the rest of us were in the back. Reed frowned.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"You know what I'm talking about."

I looked back to see Reed sigh as Susan looked at him worriedly.

"Look, we were gonna tell you guys-"

"When were you gonna tell us?" Johnny interjected," When you moved our stuff out of the Baxter Building?"

"Johnny, this really isn't a good time," Susan interrupted.

"Kids got a point, Reed," Ben suddenly spoke up, despite the fact that I was shaking my head at him to let it go," You should've told us."

Reed got irritated at this point.

"All right, all right! That's enough! We'll talk about this later."

We all turned as the General yelled at us.

"What the hell is wrong with you people?"

I sighed and looked out the window. I frowned as I saw a huge hole opening up in the river and water being sucked down into it. There were people crowding around the edge of the river talking and pointing at the sight. As the helicopter landed, there was a strange pulse that moved through the earth. It was rather strong. We got out of the helicopter and headed for the London Eye. The gigantic ferris wheel and completely broken as the wheel began to fall onto the river with people still inside. Susan put up a force field to hold it up. The wheel was too heavy for her to hold for long so I put up a wall to try and help hold it a little longer. Ben began lifting it up so that people could get off. Reed wrapped himself around the structure, attempting to help pull it back. Johnny stood back and waited as I ran around to help get people off the wheel. I turned as I heard Johnny take off as the Silver Surfer came out of the hole. A wire snapped off the wheel, causing Johnny to dodge, but instead of stopping to gain back control he flew straight toward the wheel where Reed was trying to hold on to it.

"JOHNNY, NO!" I shouted as he rammed into Reed's super extended arms.

I thought I was going to have a heart attack as I watched Reed retract back to normal but completely covered in flames while Johnny fell onto the ground and flattened out like he had no bones. The wheel began to fall without Reed's extra strength to hold it up. I pulled the last of the people out to safety as Ben lifted the wheel higher on Reed's command and he welded it back into place. I sighed with relief as the wheel was set, but the Silver Surfer had gotten away again. Reed came down and got his powers back after touching Johnny and went over to check on Susan. I ran over to see how they were doing. Susan wasn't doing too well and as Johnny made a move to help, Reed put a hand out to stop him.

"Stay back…before you get somebody killed."

I looked at Johnny who looked somewhat hurt. I was about to go over to him, but Ben caught our attention.

"Oh my God…"

We all turned and looked out at the river. It was completely dry and the hole was visible. Random junk and fish that were going to die lay on the empty riverbed. It was disturbing for many reasons to look at. The General got us all together to go back to America. Reaching home, we were brought to a meeting that was less than fun to be at. The General was beside himself with anger.

"What the hell was that?" he accused.

Reed tried to be calm about it.

"We'll make adjustments. Next time we'll be ready."

"Next time- there's no next time," he growled," You can't handle this alone. That's why I'm bringing in some help."

"General, you bring in more soldiers and weaponry; you're gonna to put innocent people in danger."

"No more than you already have."

The voice didn't come from the General, but it was a voice we knew. We all turned in shock to see Victor von Doom. It was stunning. He was completely his old self again. His skin was perfect, showing no signs of metal and he was dressed in a black leather trench coat.

"Victor," Reed could only say.

Our old enemy laughed.

"What's the matter? Afraid of ghosts?"

Ben suddenly charged forward and slammed him into the concrete wall, breaking it a bit.

"Since you're a ghost, you won't mind if I break your little neck," he told him, his rock hand wrapped around Victor's neck.

"Let him go," the General told him.

"Don't you know who that is?" Johnny asked, angrily.

General Hager looked back at him.

"He's Victor von Doom. He's here under my orders."

There was a stunned silence, but if that was the case, we couldn't fight it.

"Ben, let him go," Reed requested.

Ben threw him down, but none of us really liked this plan. After what had happened before, none of us trusted him in the least. Victor had to pick himself off the floor, gagging and gasping for air.

"How is this possible?" Reed asked," How are you still alive?"

"No thanks to you five, that's for certain."

General Hager turned to Reed.

"Von Doom's made contact with the alien. He's got valuable information."

Victor stepped closer to us.

"Information that might just help save the planet. Now, let's be clear about this, shall we? I hate you. All of you. But the world's at stake and…we need to work together to survive."

Reed glanced over at the general.

"General, we know firsthand- you trust Victor, and you're gonna regret it."

"So far the only one I've regretted trusting her is you, Richards."

Again, my dislike for the General bubbled up inside, but this was not my call to make.

"Reed, don't agree to this," Ben told him.

He thought for a moment, looking at Victor's face.

"Let's see what he's got…"

Ben, Johnny, and I all sighed, but we let the General lead us all to another room so we could see what information Victor von Doom had brought.


	16. Chapter 16

A screen was set up and we watched a video that Victor had taken of his encounter with the Silver Surfer. It had taken place when he had made the hole in Iceland.

"I made a detailed recording of our little encounter," Victor commented as we watched the video."

We could hear the Silver Surfer talking.

"All that you know is at an end."

Suddenly he'd sent a silver wave at Victor, sending him flying backwards. Victor froze it on that shot.

"Well?" he asked, looking over at our group.

Ben laughed.

"I like the part where he knocks you on your ass."

I bit back my laugh, but turned away so that I was smiling at Reed, who had a small smile on his face as well. Victor glared at him before moving along with his information.

"Look at where the energy levels surge when he attacks me."

He replayed the clip is slow motion. The energy obviously rose up from his board to his hands. Reed pointed it out for the group. Victor paused the clip again.

"If we can separate him from the board we can cut off his power completely," he said, looking at Reed.

"And that's what we have to do," the General added.

"How?" Johnny asked.

Victor looked over at him with an unsatisfied look on his face.

"If I knew that, I wouldn't need you people, would I?"

The General and his sidekicks stood up.

"You two should get started right away."

It was silent as we all did not look forward to this. Victor smiled around at us.

"I'm glad we have the opportunity to collaborate again. I'll try to talk slowly so you can keep up."

He gave Reed an annoying pat on the shoulder. Reed turned to look at him with a very fake smile on his face. We were soon on our way back home. When I got back to my room, I immediately went to my closet. The next few days were going to be rough on Reed and Susan especially. I was halfway through changing when Johnny came into my room. I leaped into the closet with a yelp as I'd only just finished pulling on a jean skirt.

"Knock, you idiot!" I complained, walking back out as it was only him.

I quickly pulled a lime green shirt on as he leaned against the wall beside my door. He was wearing a white shirt with a dark brownish green button down shirt over it. He had on his typical jeans as well.

"I've seen what you've got, so it doesn't matter."

"That is not justification for you not knocking…"

I looked over to see that he wasn't smiling at all.

"You okay?" I asked, concerned that he wasn't being his normally cheerful self.

He shrugged at my question.

"Want to go to the bar with me and Ben?" he asked.

"Sure."

I walked over to him and watched as he did his best to keep out of my reach. I felt bad for him, especially after what Reed had told him earlier. The serious look he wore made me feel strangely attracted to him. I did not understand. Acting mostly on impulse, I reached out and touched him.

"Hey!" he protested, but didn't say much else as I kept the flames only at my hands.

I felt extremely warm compared to how I normally was. It was strange since my body temperature was typically much, much lower than normal. Now it was a lot higher. I caught Johnny shiver slightly.

"Are you always this cold?" he asked, making an icicle in his hand.

I took it and watched it melt in my hand.

"Pretty much," I responded, touching his chest and feeling my power come back to me.

Johnny was surprised as I kept my hand on him and kissed his cheek.

"You're no danger to me, Johnny," I told him with a smile before letting go of him and opening my door.

He stood in my room with an unreadable expression on his face for a moment longer before walking out of the room behind me. I was somewhat glad to see his cocky smile again.

"Depends on the danger, peppermint stick."

We went down stairs and met up with Ben before walking to the bar. While we were there, I sat with Ben as we watched Johnny threw darts at a dartboard. He was evidently still as irked as we were about Victor being back. I had become wise enough in my drinking habits to know that two was enough and three was too much. I sat drinking my first beer happily receiving the mild buzz it brought me while Johnny talked.

"How can we be working on the same side as Victor?" he questioned, throwing a dart.

"You got me, pal," Ben responded," Things were a lot simpler when I could just wail on the guy."

A little of Johnny's irritation came out as he threw another dart and lit it on fire as he did so. The dartboard began to burn.

"Oh! Shit, shit…"

With a quick leap, Johnny dumped a glass of beer on the dartboard. Ben, like most of the other people at the bar, stared at him in surprise. I just smiled to myself, finding him somewhat cute. Maybe…one beer was turning out to be too much. Johnny turned and looked at the owner of the bar.

"I'll pay for that!" he announced.

As people went back to their conversations, Johnny plucked the darts off the dartboard.

"I got to tell you, guys, I'm starting to feel like a completely screw-up."

Ben shook his head.

"Hey, hey, you're not a _complete_ screw-up."

I smiled as Johnny nodded at him.

"Thank you."

"Look, kid, it's out of our hands. It's up to the eggheads now."

I waved my beer at him.

"Watch it. I'm half an egghead."

Ben winked at me as Johnny began tossing darts again.

"You think Reed's right?" he asked," About the whole end-of-the-world thing?"

I looked over to see the rock man look at his empty glass a little sadly. I put down my beer and looked over at Johnny.

"He's never been wrong about this kind of thing before," I sighed as Johnny sat down next to me.

Johnny seemed to think for a second before looking up at Ben who sat across from him.

"Well, I'm not exactly a deep kind of guy."

I refrained from saying anything so I took a drink as Ben raised a rocky eyebrow at the younger male.

"Really."

Johnny leaned his elbows against the table and looked down at his beer.

"But if Reed's right and this is it…how do you want to spend your last few minutes?"

I glanced between the two of them. Johnny gave me a quick glance, but couldn't seem to look at me for too long. Leaning back in my chair, I thought to myself how I would want to be doing when it ended. I looked over at Johnny again and felt my face go red as the first thing that came to my mind surprised me.

"Part of me would like to go out fighting," Ben started, before chuckling," But the truth is…I'd like to spend my last couple of minutes holding Alicia."

I smiled and patted his large hand.

"That's so romantic," I cooed, making Ben laugh lightly.

Johnny nodded his head, accepting that answer.

"That sounds pretty good," he replied, leaning back in his chair," I mean, not the holding Alicia thing. That's, you know, your girlfriend, not mine. I want nothing to do with her. Not to say that she's not attractive. She's very attractive. I mean, she's, you know, so attractive. Even with the, you know-"

He waved his hands in front of his eyes. Ben and I stared at him as he rambled. I was slightly irritated by it, but Ben I knew was even more annoyed.

"I can't even think of a guy who wouldn't want to-"

Ben slammed his fist onto the table loudly, interrupting Johnny's long string of nonsense. Johnny stopped and I ran a hand through my hair as people looked over at us. The younger male looked at Ben seriously.

"What I meant was that it's just nice to have somebody."

Ben looked a little bashful as I looked down at the table. I slipped out of my seat before the other two said anything else and went over to the restroom. I was glad it was a single bathroom as I strangely felt tears run down my cheeks. I leaned against the sink and groaned. I didn't understand why I felt like this all of a sudden. The thought of the world ending in a few days gave me a strange feeling. I felt as if I was wasting my life. Not because I was part of the Fantastic Five, but because I was almost twenty five and I didn't have a steady boyfriend and I wasn't even remotely close to settling down and having my own family. I felt so jealous of what Susan and Reed had. They were so close to having what I wanted the most and, while I was over the moon happy for them, I desperately wished for it for myself. And what killed me even more was the feeling of wanting it with someone who wasn't about to agree to an exclusive relationship. It wasn't fair to want a chronic bachelor. I started freezing my tears as soon as they fell so that I wouldn't have tear stains. I could always blame my red eyes on being tired. Pulling myself together, I brushed the frozen tears into the sink to let them melt away and I exited the restroom to see Ben and Johnny waiting for me.

"Ready to go?" Ben asked me.

I smiled up at him.

"Yeah."

Johnny looked at me suspiciously, but said nothing as we walked out and made our way back home. Back at the Baxter Building, I wished the two goodnight before heading up to my room. I was right outside my door and reaching for the doorknob when a hand wrapped around my wrist and I felt my body temperature leap up.

"Johnny…" I protested as I was pulled into the room next door.

He let me go inside his room and shut the door. He picked me up, switching our powers again, and walked over to his bed before laying me down on it. Without letting go of me, he crawled on top of me so that he was looking down at my face.

"Every time I drink, you want something," I commented," Is there a correlation?"

He looked down at me with soft eyes.

"You know, it's kind of suspicious when woman, such as yourself, escapes to the rest room after hearing as question such as "How would you want to spend your last minutes?" and listening to response of someone wanting to be with the one they love in those moments. Am I correct in my assessment that this conversation got to you somehow?"

I blinked at him, trying not to let on that I had been crying a little.

"I'm kind of surprised that you would pay this much attention to what I do."

Johnny smiled and lowered himself so that his weight rested on his elbows while still keeping me trapped beneath him. His hands lay gently on my shoulders.

"Candy, darling, were you crying? Your eyes are quite red."

I looked away from him.

"I'm tired; we went to England recently, if you've forgotten."

Johnny made a face at me, so I knew he noticed I was stalling. I sighed.

"So what? The thought of the world ending is scary and sure I want to be with someone I love, but here I am…single…and one hundred percent so."

He grinned at me and kissed my cheek.

"I wouldn't say one hundred percent. More like…hmm…thirty percent."

I wrinkled my forehead.

"Who am I seventy percent in a relationship with?"

He gave me a toothy smile and I laughed.

"You? Let me clear this up for you. You and I aren't "dating". You and I are friends, we live in the Baxter Building together, and we are a part of a group. Now, we have a bit of a sexual relationship going for us which counts for twenty percent at most. So I'd say that _we_ are thirty percent in a relationship while _I _am seventy percent single. You, at any given point in time, are only ever at most ten percent in a relationship because you don't settle down. And on record, there is only one instance in which you stayed in an exclusive relationship and you were in high school."

Johnny sighed and was suddenly pulled into a strong embrace. I gaped in confusion as he rolled us onto our sides and held my head close to his heart. I could feel his heart beating; his body giving off heat at just the right temperature for any normal girl who would be hugging any normal guy would exactly feel.

"I think I need to be more direct with you," I heard him say from above my head," Candace, I would want to spend my last moments with you. Why? Because I have feelings for you that are far beyond friendship and far beyond this "friends with benefits" thing we have going on. Just because I don't want to settle down, doesn't mean I can't feel this way. And you're not ready to accept me either. I feel you fighting me still. You don't believe everything I say and I can accept that because I know I'm not perfect. Not for you. But one day…if we get to live to that day, I will be. I promise. I'll get there for you. But don't be afraid to tell me how you feel because I won't laugh and I won't push you away. I'm right here. I'm always right here."

I sniffled slightly. I cursed him in my mind for knowing what a girl wants to hear sometimes and being bold enough to say it to me. I clenched his shirt in my hands and held onto him, my tears going into his shirt. He only held me tight that night. There was nothing more and nothing less. He held me till I stopped crying and he held me until I feel asleep. And when I woke up the next morning, he was still there holding me, his eyes closed and deep, slow breaths escaping from his lips. And for some reason, it was enough to make me happy. If the world was going to end in a few days, I didn't need to be married to him. I didn't need to have a family. It was enough hearing him say that he'd be there, just that one time. It was enough to make me accept that I loved him, not as a friend, but as a man that I could be with for the rest of my life. But of course, I wasn't about to tell him.


	17. Chapter 17

Reed figured out that a tachyon pulse could part the Silver Surfer from his board. He began working on it, thought Victor was sneaking off elsewhere some of the time. We were going to be heading to our next destination in ten minutes and Johnny still wasn't ready. We were going to the Black Forest in Germany this time. Ben grumbled about the kid never being on time. I was surprised when he came in looking rather serious. I looked at me and shook his head.

"I was just told I'm bordering on being a narcissist."

I snorted at the amazing assessment.

"Let me guess, you tried flirting with the dear female military woman."

"I can't help it. My initial reaction is to flirt. I can't just say "Hello, you're pretty. Let's be friends!" I can't do that!"

I sighed as we began heading to the helicopters again.

"Of course not."

After a long and rather dull flight to Germany, we got to the forest. The military had already set up a small base with tanks and other dangerous toys. We followed Reed as he went to speak to the General.

"General, give us a one-mile perimeter."

"Forget it, Richards. You had your shot, and you blew it. This is a military operation now, so jam the signal, get out of the way, and let us do our job."

He began walking away, but Reed turned after him.

"You don't understand."

"No, you don't understand. So let me make it clear for you and your pack of freaks here. _I'm_ the quarterback, you're on _my_ team. Got it?"

I was completely ready to freeze the man to death, but I held myself in check. He laughed at Reed.

"But I guess you never played football in high school. Did you, Richards?"

He began to walk away, but Reed had an irritated grin on his face.

"No, you're right. I didn't. I stayed in and studied like a good little nerd. And fifteen years later, I'm one of the greatest minds of the twenty-first century, I'm engaged to the hottest girl on the planet, and the big jock who played quarterback in high school…well, he's standing right in front of me, asking for _my_ help. And I say he's not gonna get a damn thing unless he does exactly what I tell him and starts treating my friends and me with some respect."

I did a little cheer for Reed in my head as we watched the General walk away a small, respectful grin on his face.

"Give him what he wants."

Susan went up to Reed and whispered to him, but everyone in our group heard her.

"I'm so hot for you right now."

"Me, too!" Johnny said, giving Reed a strange man-hug from behind.

"Careful, Johnny," Reed smiled as they switched powers," All right, let's go to work."

After they switched back powers, Reed handed the devices out. He gave one to Ben, Susan, and me while keeping one for him. Johnny was sent with me to set up the device. After getting our coordinates, we headed out to our positions. My partner was quiet as we set up the device easily. Reed's voice came over our headsets asking for our status. All of us were set except for Susan. Suddenly, we heard her gasp.

"Guys, we have a problem."

"What's wrong?" Reed asked.

"He's here."

"Get out here! Right now!" Reed responded, worriedly.

Johnny and I took off back to the rendezvous spot Reed had chosen for all of us. We reached the area just as Reed met us. He'd apparently checked on Susan as explosions began going off. We could see that the military had opened fire on the Silver Surfer and he was now attacking them, pretty much out of self-defense. Johnny was itching to follow the Surfer, but Reed held him back. The Silver Surfer was heading our way; it was our last shot at making this mission a success. We were waiting on Susan to finish setting up. It was at the last moment when Susan got it and Reed hit the button. The Silver Surfer fell from his board as it kept on going. He hit the ground somewhere in the trees. We ran off to go find him. When we got there, Victor was already there.

"Victor, stay back," Reed warned.

"You're the quarterback," he replied with a sarcastic smirk.

We all spotted the board floating a few feet away as if waiting. The military showed up not too long afterwards. They took the board and the Silver Surfer, who was now a dark gray and put him in a transportation vehicle. They had us go as well and they took us to a base in Jakutsk, Siberia. They put us in a room with a long table and chairs. We were also being watching as there were surveillance cameras in the room. Reed got into an argument with the General as soon as we got inside.

"But, General, we had an agreement," Reed reminded him.

"Calm down. The enemy had been captured- mission accomplished."

"Where is he?" Susan asked.

Apparently, she had talked to the Silver Surfer briefly in the forest. He's apparently told her that he wasn't the destroyer and that there was nothing he could do to stop the destruction of the planet.

"Contained."

The General was requested and he excused himself from the room. Reed tried to go with him, but the General turned him down. They then locked us in with a guard standing outside the door.

Johnny looked around the room.

"Are we prisoners?" he chuckled," How did that happen?"

Reed had been looking at a world map that hung on the side of one of the walls. He turned and sighed.

"Apparently, they don't want us interfering with their methods."

"I can't even imagine what they're doing to him in there," Susan commented, sadly.

She sat leaning back in her seat. I was pacing the width of the room by Johnny. I eventually stopped beside Ben as he spoke up.

"I say he gets what he deserves."

"How can you say that?" she demanded.

"I'm just saying that maybe the General is right about this. They guy was about to destroy the planet. He said so himself."

"But it doesn't make any sense. He protected me from the missile. Why would he do that?"

Johnny sat down in a chair.

"Maybe he thinks you're cute."

Susan gave him a look as I folded my arms.

"There's a lot more going on here. Sue, didn't' you say that he said he wasn't the destroyer?"

Ben looked over at me.

"Uh, maybe he lied?"

Reed thought for a moment.

"We need to get inside there and talk to him, but under the radar."

He looked over at Susan who smiled at him. I rubbed my hands together.

"I got this. Johnny, Sue, come here."

I told the two of them what to do to get out of here. Since Johnny was the one everyone knew had the shortest attention span and got bored the fastest, we were going to use that to slip Sue out when he opened the door. Putting the plan in motion, the guard turned as the door opened.

"Hey, uh, is there any way we can get some DVDs or popcorn or something? Just to pass the time?"

The guard nodded.

"I'll call it in, Mr. Storm."

"Great. Thank you. _Semper fi_."

I rolled my eyes at him.

"That's the marine corps. We're the army."

"Right. I know. It's the…army."

He closed the door and looked back at the three of us still in the room.

"Ta-da!"

We grinned and waited about ten minutes. Susan slipped back in and became visible. She had spoken to the Silver Surfer.

"He's not the destroyer. He's just a servant. He isn't serving it because he wants to, but it is to spare his world. He said he protected me because I remind him of the one he loved back on his home planet. He doesn't want to help destroy the worlds. This thing, they called it, Galactus. It will be here soon. And the board is what's drawing it here."

"How do you fight something that can eat planets?" Johnny asked, skeptically.

"We have to get to the board and lead it away from here before it's too late," Reed decided.

"Well, do you think the general would go for that?"

I sighed.

"He'll have no choice. Alright, Ben. It's your turn to make a request."

We all waited as Ben went to the door and opened it, speaking to the guard.

"Hey, you, come here. Let me ask you something."


	18. Chapter 18

Once we'd gotten out of the room, we ran down the hall toward where the board was being held. We were taken by surprise as a huge chunk of the cement wall went flying down the hallway. Johnny, Susan, and I moved to the sides and pressed ourselves to the wall as it went by. We were shocked when we turned and didn't see Ben and Reed. The two of them had been hit by the flying cement and had slammed into the wall behind them.

"Ben!" Johnny called.

The wall fell over revealing Ben. He shook his head.

"Okay. That one hurt."

"Where's Reed?" Susan asked, worriedly.

His muffled voice sounded from behind Ben.

"Back here."

Ben stepped away from the wall revealing a squished Reed. I giggled as he peeled himself away from the wall.

"My bad," Ben admitted.

Moving on, we ran through the hole in the wall to find the room inside pretty trashed. The containment chamber for the board was destroyed. Susan alerted us to something disturbing. Turning, we saw the General was dead. It was as if the matter that made up his body had exploded in some areas. It was so gross it made my stomach churn. I had to look away. Reed instantly knew Victor had done this.

"We've got to get it back," I said.

Susan sighed.

"We need to get the Surfer. He's the only one that understands its power."

"Even if we break him out of this place, how are we gonna catch up to Victor?" Ben asked.

"Leave that to me," Reed answered, mysteriously.

He pulled out his PDA and typed something into it. We then headed for the room where the Silver Surfer was being held. Ben ran straight through the wall to grant us an entrance. As we went in through the hole, the guards inside tried to stop us, but Susan put them in balls of invisible energy. Breaking through the glass doors, Ben entered the area with the Surfer.

"Pal, this is the luckiest day of your life," he told him.

They unstrapped him and, seeing as he couldn't walk, Reed had to help him along. As we tried to make our way to the roof on Reed's orders, we were stopped by Johnny's female military friend. She was wielding a gun at us.

"What the hell is going on?" she asked," Where is General Hager?"

"He's dead," Reed answered.

"If we don't him out of here," Ben told her," we're all gonna be."

"Frankie-"Johnny started, but she pointed her gun at him," The world is literally at stake here. You have to trust us. Please."

She lowered her gun and let us pass. As we moved on, I shook my head at Johnny.

"You just made another girl fall in love with you."

"Awesome. Too bad I can't do anything about that right now."

I pushed my jealousy aside as we hit the stairs and thundered up them. We broke out onto the roof and were surprised to see a silver flying car park itself beside the roof.

"Holy crap," Ben said.

"Reed," Johnny breathed, astonished," This is by far the coolest thing you've ever done!"

Susan and I smiled at him.

"Coolest cousin _ever_!" was my response.

Johnny reached it and studied it. It was amazingly a Dodge Hemi that could fly.

"Okay, Ben, you get inside, "Reed commanded," Johnny, you fly behind us."

Johnny looked over at his almost brother-in-law.

"Dude, you gotta let me fly this thing."

"Forget about it," Ben replied, "I'm the best pilot here. I should drive."

The rest of us couldn't believe they were arguing over this right now.

"Are you serious?" Johnny protested," We'll be lucky if this thing can carry you!"

"I can fly circles around you blindfolded!"

"Ah, shut up!" Reed interjected," And move it! I'm driving."

We pushed past the two and got into the flying car. As we drove off, Johnny came flying after us. Reed was in the front driver's seat. Ben took the one in the back. Susan, the Surfer, and I were all seated in the three middle seats.

"Okay, we're now officially enemies of the United States of America, Victor is out there somewhere with unlimited power, and we've got a giant intergalactic force that's about to destroy our planet in less than twenty four hours. Did I miss anything?"

"Thank you for the confidence boost there, big guy," I shouted back to him.

Reed worked on the system from his seat in the front.

"I've got a lock on Victor's energy trail. He's headed over Southeast China. Hang on."

It was good to know where we were headed. As we continued on, I was surprised as the Surfer spoke.

"Norrin Radd."

"What?" Susan asked.

"I was once called Norrin Radd."

"Norrin, we're gonna need your help to save our world," she told him," Do you understand?"

We went quiet and suddenly the system gave out for a second on the car. We were then hit by an energy blast from the side. Victor had spotted us. Reed shouted to him.

"Victor, the board is drawing the destroyer here! You have to give it up!"

"You know, I've never been the giving type, Reed."

Reed sent use downwards as Victor went to attack us again. I turned to see Johnny try to charge him, but he only brought water up from the river below and doused Johnny with it sending him flying to the ground. I didn't even have time to worry about his as we flew crazily around.

"We're sitting ducks!" Ben shouted.

"We're gonna have to split up!" Reed yelled.

"WHAT?" Susan and I screamed.

"This ought to be fun," Ben added sarcastically.

The car suddenly split. Reed, Ben, and I had our own mini-cars while Susan got Norrin's seat with her. We dodged around rocks as Victor practically threw a mountain in our way. Adrenaline had taken over my body as I had no idea how to pilot a flying vehicle, but luckily I was a decent driver. We came upon the Great Wall of China. Victor had no qualms with destroying a historical landmark in his attempts to kill us. He was aiming for Susan and the Surfer at this point as they were the weakest links, but Reed pulled them out of the way with a super extended arm at the last minute. Ben came out of nowhere and gave Victor a good punch to the face sending him spinning. Reed tried to reason with him as we all came into a circle around him. Johnny was even back in the fight.

"Let's all go for a spin!" he suddenly said.

He began spinning on the spot, creating a wind tornado that sent caught us all up and twirled us around. We were suddenly tossed and we began falling toward a city. We all crashed onto a street in China. As the car stopped, I lifted my head up to feel blood pouring from two cuts; one on my cheek and another on my forehead. Ignoring the pain, I jumped out of the car and looked around. I saw Norrin standing in the middle of a crowd and Victor was coming at him with a huge spear that materialized in his hand. I heard Susan scream and saw her jumping out of the car.

"Wait, Sue!" I shouted, pushing my way through people to try to get to her.

Victor threw the spear.

"Catch," was all he said.

"NO!" I screamed as Susan stopped in front of Norrin and put up a forcefield.

It didn't work. The spear went right threw the shield and stabbed her in the chest.

"SUSAN!"

I reached her at the same time Ben and Reed did. Reed dropped to the ground and held her in his arms. Norrin stared down at her. His expression completely blank. Johnny landed, completely stunned. I felt numb as I leaned down and put a hand on her shoulder. Johnny went to help, but Ben stopped him.

"Johnny, don't touch her."

He was still unstable and it was killing him. We all knew he loved Susan even though he teased her constantly. That was his way of showing affection. The spear dissolved and she fell back onto the ground. There was no visible wound, but she was definitely internally injured.

"You need to find a way to get the board," she gasped to Reed.

A great rumbling sound started up and we all looked to the sky. The clouds above were completely grey and were churning creepily. Thunder and lightning crashed within the clouds.

"He is here," Norrin announced.

Ben got Reed's attention as he panicked while holding his dying fiancée.

"Victor's got to have a pulse emitter linking him to his board," he told us," We take it out; we can separate him from his board."

Johnny shook his head.

"He's too strong for me."

"I could wail on him, if I could get close enough," Ben said," but he could see me from a mile away."

"Ice would slow him down, but I couldn't get close enough," I added," I'm not fast enough."

"It would take all of us," Reed sighed.

We all were silent for a moment before Johnny stood up straight.

"Or maybe just one of us."

We looked over at him.

"No," I said," We don't know what it could do to you. No, Johnny."

Johnny gave me a meaningful look before looking around at the others.

"Let's not make this about me."

It was our last shot to save the world. I couldn't hold Johnny back if he was willing to put his life on the line for everyone. I nodded with the others before we put our hands together. Johnny added his hand last and we could feel all our powers leave us and go straight to him. As Johnny disappeared and went up to get to Victor, Ben ran to a clothing store and pulled on a hoodie. Reed held on to Susan as she had a hard time breathing. Ben went and climbed up a crane to help Johnny out as much as he could. I waited beside Norrin as Johnny and Victor fought. The board eventually dropped and made its way to Norrin. I went back to check on Susan as the others came back. Ben had used the crane to knock Victor very, very far away. Johnny gave us back our powers and we stood quietly watching Susan. I sobbed silently as the life left her eyes. Tears ran down Reed's face. There was nothing any of us could say. It was the end of the world already. Susan was gone. One member of our team. Our world had already ended. Ben, Johnny, and I looked over as Norrin got on his board again. His body turned completely silver once again.

"You've got to go," Reed told him.

Norrin, to our surprise, reached out a hand that he let hover over Susan's face. He looked as if he was in slight pain and spots of dark gray appeared on his body as he did that. Pulling back, he looked straight at Reed.

"Treasure each moment with her," he told him," And tell her she was right- We do have a choice."

With that he turned and sailed up toward space. I looked down at Reed and Susan as Johnny took off to help the Silver Surfer get up into space. We were stunned as she moved. I was completely in tears of happiness and Ben was tearing up as well. The area started exploding all of a sudden. Stores were bursting into flames. Ben looked around.

"Why isn't it working?" he asked.

"We were too late," Reed told him.

We looked up at the sky, hoping that he was wrong. We had to cover our eyes as there was a strange and extremely bright flash of light and then it was over. Everything was calm again. Lights began to come on again that had shut off previously. Everything was quiet and the starry night sky shone brightly above us. Susan was awake again. Ben and I smiled as she and Reed talked. Johnny came down from the sky and Ben ran over to greet him.

"Hey! Hey!"

"He did it!" Johnny said, looking around

"Great job, kid."

Ben patted him on the back. Johnny leaped back and looked at him, expecting the two of them to change powers.

"Hey, wait. I'm not changing."

He tapped Ben again.

"Hey, that's right."

The two laughed and the rest of us smiled. Johnny was so happy he kissed the top of Ben's head and pulled him into a big hug.

"Okay, now you're making me uncomfortable," Ben told him, pulling him away.

"Sorry."

He then ran over to me, to my complete surprise, and picked me up. He spun me around once and gave me a satisfied kiss on the lips.

"Woah, calm down," I told him, glancing around as people were coming out from their hiding places," Don't want the Chinese people to let the rest of the world know we're…something."

"You know, I don't think I really care," he told me, with a kiss on the cheek.

He turned and saw that Reed and Susan were standing not too far away. I smiled as the two dashed over and hugged each other. Ben came over and I gave him a pat on the back. Reed hugged came over and hugged both of us. We were so glad to still be all together and completely alive. We began walking, to where we weren't sure.

"So I guess this is it," Ben said, sadly," We all go our separate ways."

Johnny took my hand in his and gave it a squeeze.

"No."

We all looked over at Reed.

"No?" Ben asked.

"No," Susan replied.

"No?" Johnny asked.

"Yes, no," I grinned.

Reed put an arm around my shoulder.

"If it wasn't for the team, the whole world would be gone by now," he said.

"We can't run away from our responsibilities and the people we need to protect," Susan continued, "This is who we are."

Johnny sighed.

"That's what I've been saying!"

"What about having a normal life, a family?" I asked.

"Who says you have to be normal to have a family?" Reed smiled.

"So," Susan turned to Reed," You up for another media circus wedding? Fifth times the charm."

Reed sighed.

"No. I've got a better idea."

Author's Note: Just wanted to let you guys know that I appreciate all the reviews I get form this story. I've wanted to write this Johnny story since FOREVER and I'm glad so many of you were willing to read it. This story IS going to continue after the Silver Surfer movie. I hope you guys will enjoy what I have in store for Johnny and his favorite Candy.


	19. Chapter 19

It took no more than a week to put together a beautiful Japanese wedding for Reed and Susan. Everyone important to them was flown in and Susan wore a beautiful white and red kimono. Reed drew the line there and insisted on wearing a tux. Johnny, to my irritation, invited his military female friend who was now very into him as I had predicted. I decided I'd rather not fight this battle of "I have the hotter date" anymore and just went single to Johnny's supreme surprise and annoyance. As we all stood watching the ceremony start, Reed's PDA went off once again. I just shook my head with a slight smile. Of course it would happen.

"What is it?" Susan whispered to him.

"Venice is sinking into the Adriatic," he answered.

Ben sighed.

"Oh, boy. That's a biggie."

"Could we just skip to the end?" Susan asked the minister.

Johnny and I smirked at each other.

"Yeah, uh, the love these two share-"

"No, the very end," Reed interrupted.

The minister looked pretty annoyed by now.

"Yeah, great. Uh, you have the rings?"

Ben handed Reed Susan's ring and I handed Susan Reed's.

"I now pronounce you man and wife. And you may kiss the bride."

They kissed and all of us watching laughed with relief that they'd finally tied the knot.

"Okay," Susan smiled at her husband," We should get out of here."

"Yeah."

We took off for the flying car. Johnny was the first one in. Susan stopped me and Reed before we got in the car.

"I have to throw the bouquet."

I rolled my eyes and moved back to where the other girls were waiting. Susan had talked to me and said that I was necessary that I try and at least catch it if I could. Since it was her wedding day, I decided I'd do it for her.

"Ready?"

The girls around me giggled excitedly. She then threw it over her head. It was heading straight for Johnny's date. I easily spotted him sending a fireball up to kill the bouquet, but I moved around and tossed a snowball at the last second to dissipate the fire. And that was when I caught it instead. I gaped at it while Susan and Reed looked over at Johnny for throwing the fireball.

"Sorry. Reflex."

I ran over to the car as Susan smiled at me.

"You caught it!" she squealed.

"Never speak of it _ever_."

We smiled at each other and got in the flying car. The issue in Venice was a pretty easy fix and afterwards, Susan and Reed decided to just stay awhile and have their honeymoon there. Luckily for them, nothing really happened within two weeks so it was okay for them to have a long honeymoon. When they came back, they were a happy lovey dovey married couple. It was somewhat gross, actually. One morning, about a month after the Silver Surfer stuff, I woke up feeling like utter crap. I lay in bed for awhile just trying to get over the feeling of wanting to hurl. After it persisted and even got worse, I ran to the bathroom and spilled my guts into the toilet. I groaned and sat down on the floor.

"What did I eat last night? Ugh, gross."

For some unknown reason, I had let Johnny keep the connecting bathroom to our bedrooms when the Baxter Building had been remodeled. Now I was embarrassed as Johnny came in and found me on the floor after getting sick. I leaped up, almost fell over, and flushed the toilet. He blinked at me.

"You okay?" he asked me slowly.

"No, I feel gross."

I sat back down on the floor and rest my head against the edge of the tub. Johnny knelt down and felt my forehead.

"Well, I can't tell if you're sick. You're naturally freezing."

"Thank you, Dr. Useless. I'll go hunt down Reed or something…"

Johnny laughed as I got up shakily. He stood up and held me steady as I marched to my room.

"You're going to ask Reed? He's not _that _kind of doctor you know. Sicknesses are not is cup of tea."

"For people like us with wacky DNA he can be!"

Johnny sighed and stood in front of me. He gave me a very stern look.

"I want you to go to an actual doctor, okay? Do you need me to bring you?"

I glared at him.

"I'm a big girl. I can go on my own."

He grinned at me as I stomped over to my closet before running back to the bathroom and throwing up again. I sighed as I heard him open my bedroom door.

"I'm going to have Susan go with you since you don't want me."

I sat on the floor, pitifully sympathizing with myself. I hated being sick. It made you feel gross, you tended to smell gross, and you felt like life was gross until you were okay again. I heaved myself off the ground to get to my closet again.

"Please don't be the stomach flu…please don't be the stomach flu…"

Author's Note: Yeah, its short b/c I felt bad for making such long chapters previously. Don't worry. I'm sure the chapters will set back to their natural length starting the next chapter.


	20. Chapter 20

"Doctors don't know anything!" I shouted, striding out of the elevator in a rage.

Susan followed me to the living room where I threw myself on the couch.

"They're stupid. They're wrong. They never get diagnosis correct."

"Candy, you need to calm down. They're not wrong."

I glared at her.

"And how do you know? I'd rather _die_."

Susan gave me a stern look.

"Candace Richards, I don't ever want to hear you say something like that ever again. And I know that isn't true."

I pouted and looked away from her. She sighed and sat down next to me. She rubbed my back as I started crying.

"Sue, help me," I pleaded.

She pulled me into a hug and I cried into her shoulder. I'd been wailing like that for about five minutes when Reed came into the room. He looked between me and his wife.

"What's going on?" he asked.

We both looked over at him before I leaped up and ran out of the room.

"YOU CAN'T TELL HIM!" I shouted to Susan.

I went up to my room and locked my bedroom door and the bathroom door which I was glad could now lock from my side as well. I went and sat on my bed. I took some deep breaths. This wasn't happening. It wasn't even remotely possible. Right? I lay back on my bed and stared up at the ceiling. I heard Susan knocking on my door and telling me to open it, but I just couldn't. I didn't know how I felt. I didn't believe, but then I did. I hated the situation, but it could be worse. I was sad, confused, scared, yet happy and maybe a little intrigued by the whole thing. I was so freaking messed up. I sat up once again and sighed deeply. I wondered what would happen now. I'd have to hide from the media for awhile and I'd have to hide from the people closest to me. Though I had a feeling Susan would make that super hard. Hell, she probably wouldn't even let me. I kept running over things in my mind. What if I did tell them? Reed…would run tests to make sure everything would be okay…Alicia would be…happy? Susan was already concerned. Ben and Johnny…oh, God, Ben and Johnny. I rubbed my forehead. I began walking to my bedroom door when there was a knock on it.

"Hey, peppermint stick. Are you okay? What did the doctor say?"

I froze; probably best not to do that literally from now on. I moved a little ways away from the door and made myself get angry.

"Go die in a fire."

I heard a chuckle from him.

"The one thing I can't do and that is what you request."

"Just go away."

I inched to the bathroom door and unlocked it quietly.

"Come on. What's up?"

"Stomach virus."

I slipped into the bathroom and peeked into Johnny's room. I made a mad dash for his bedroom door and succeeded in my escape. Of course he noticed me and came after me. I slid down the banister and landed in front of a disapproving Susan Richards. I gave her a guilty look as Johnny came running after me.

"You know you shouldn't be running around like that! You could-"

"I KNOW! I could totally irritate my stomach. Thanks for the concern. I need to talk to Reed. Hey, can you tell Johnny how mild my stomach virus case is? Thanks."

She stared as I walked quickly to the lab. Apparently, she sidetracked Johnny for me like I'd asked. I sighed and leaned against the glass door to the lab.

"Candy?"

"EEP!"

I turned and saw Reed looking at me curiously. I put a hand to my racing heart and moved into the lab. I tapped the desk as I reached it and I stopped before Reed.

"Need to talk about something?" he asked me, leaning back in his chair," Sue didn't spill the beans if you're wondering. But I think I'd rather hear what the doctor had to say from you. Why are you acting so weird?"

I sat on the edge of his desk and bit my lip. With a sigh I folded my hands and placed them in front of me.

"Reed, I love you like a brother and you know that so…this is hard for me to tell you. "

Reed frowned.

"Please tell me you're not dying."

"I'm not dying," I responded, plopping into an empty chair nearby," Mentally, yes. Emotionally, yes. Physically, no. Uhm…I'm going to ask that you keep the yelling to a minimum and I _beg_ you not to freak out and go all "over-protective cousin" on me, okay?"

Reed blinked at me.

"Okay…"

I thought for a moment on how I wanted to start this.

"See, I know you'll want to do tests since I'm not a…_normal_ person. My body is below normal body temperature and I agree, it is something I am concerned about as well since…I'm…not…I mean I want to…well, I don't _want_…"

"Candace…what is it?"

I cringed.

"I'm pregnant and I'm keeping it. Don't yell at me!"

Reed gaped at me for a moment. He was at a loss for words and I didn't blame him.

"I feel the same way?"

His eyes dropped to my stomach.

"Really?"

"Gawd, it's only about a month and a half, Reed. And yes…I missed a period…the pregnancy test backed up the doctor's assessment…I really can't deny it except to save myself from breaking something."

Reed narrowed his eyes at me suddenly. He'd come upon the question I didn't want _anyone_ to ask.

"And the father…?"

"So, if you want to run some tests-"

"I will, but answer me."

I groaned.

"Do you need to ask, Reed? Seriously. You all know about...it."

"Does Johnny know?"

I wanted to curl up into a ball upon hearing his name being spoken.

"No," I squeaked.

"CANDACE!"

"Oh, c'mon, Reed. You know he'd flip out. Or…something. It wouldn't be like…"Really? That's great!" or "That's cool, let's get married!"…I'd be more like…"Oh my God, why? How?" or "Shit, what do I tell my current date?" or even better "Crap! The media! What will they say?"…Yeah, I think it's best if I wait for the right moment…I mean, maybe the baby will magically be a figment of my and everyone else's imagination. God forbid my body isn't equipped for having children, but I do believe in miracles. Is this one?"

Reed stood up and put his hands on my shoulders.

"You need to calm down," he told me sternly," Candace, I love you and if you choose to keep it, that's up to you, but you also need to tell-"

"Neh!"

"-_him_."

I sighed and stood up.

"I will eventually. I mean, he'll eventually notice my fatness."

Reed gave me a small grin and pulled me into a hug.

"It'll be okay. Johnny isn't a bad guy and we all know he cares about you. Sure, it'll be hard for him, and you, at first, but it'll work out. Just don't kill each other. And you know what; maybe this baby is just what Johnny needs to learn to settle down."

"Please don't give me a "This happened for a reason" speech."

Reed kissed me on my forehead.

"Congratulations. We'll start our tests tomorrow. I just need to get together the right equipment."

I shook my head and left the lab.

"Thanks, Reed. And don't tell Ben or Johnny, please."

"Don't tell Ben and Johnny what?"

I turned and saw Ben had just walked by the lab.

"Oh, God! Seriously? This house! I'm dying of the stomach virus, Ben. I didn't want you to know I was contagious."

Ben laughed and pounded his chest.

"Hey, I doubt I could get that. I'm pretty much made of rock."

I smiled at him.

"You're right, buddy. What was I thinking?"

I went back to my room to try and sort out my thoughts. I wondered what I should do in the meantime and for how long I could hide this secret. I was pretty sure the truth would come out before I even knew it.

Author's Note: Smart, smart readers. Yes, I figured a baby was the best catalyst for their relationship. We'll see what goes on from here.


	21. Chapter 21

Luckily, the morning sickness started to slow down around week twelve, but sadly there was a very suspicious person who kept bothering me about what was _really_ going on. I'd dodged Johnny a few times when he'd tried to coax me into his bedroom. If he had gotten me there, I would have cracked like an egg in an instant. Susan was helping me, but she told me it was only for so long. I could just sense the tiny baby bump forming. I already felt like the whole world would be able to see it and it made me super paranoid. I began wearing t-shirts more and more. I figured Ben and Johnny were speculating behind my back as I kept turning down trips to the bar with them. I didn't usually turn them down before. I tried to tell them that I had given up on drinking period, but they weren't convinced. The whole ordeal was completely stressing me out. As far as Reed went with the tests, he decided that I would have to refrain from using my powers until after the baby was born. He said if I didn't, I could freeze the baby to death. I'd burst into tears when he'd said that and he had kept apologizing for a good three hours with Susan screaming at him for his insensitivity all the while. The two were pretty good at getting me out of going on missions, but Johnny's attempts to trap me and make me confess were becoming much more frequent and Susan and Reed couldn't protect me all the time.

I decided after three months, it was about time I tell him. I sat down in the living room that evening, watching the stairs for when Johnny would eventually appear. And he did, except he was dressed up to do a little partying. I got up from the couch and stood in the doorway between the elevator and the living room.

"Johnny, can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked, twisting my black hair nervously in front of me.

Johnny pulled his keys out of his pocket and looked over at me.

"How about when I come back? Gonna be late for a party. I mean, I'm already fashionably late, but…you know."

I sighed as he turned and headed for the elevator. I was so nervous to tell him, but I didn't want him to go. I could just imagine him flirting with dozens of girls and drinking and…kissing…and…I didn't know if it was high pregnancy hormone levels or if having a baby just made you more jealous, but I dashed over and grabbed the back of his jacket.

"Don't go."

Johnny looked back at me, completely astonished. I let go of his jacket quickly and hugged my stomach gently. I felt awkward now.

"I mean. Please don't go? Totally up to you, you know."

He smirked and moved close to me.

"What? You suddenly want Johnny and Candy time?"

I put my hands on his chest and pushed him away a little.

"No, that's not it. I just…"

It was an amazing struggle. I didn't want to lie, but I didn't want to tell the truth. Breathing deeply, I took Johnny's hand in mine.

"Jonathan-"

His eyebrows shot up.

"Oh, God. This can't be good."

I sighed. I couldn't do this. I was too scared. I dropped his hand.

"You know what, don't worry about it. Go to…the party."

I turned to move back to the living room only to have Johnny's arms wrap around me from behind. Luckily, I had instantly wrapped my hands around my stomach, so he didn't notice much of a difference.

"I think I know what's going on."

I turned around and stared up at him in surprise. Maybe he could still tell?

"You do?"

He leaned down and kissed me. I'd actually really missed his kisses. Who knew two months of not kissing him could put me in Johnny kiss withdrawal? He pulled back and smirked at me.

"You're really in love with me, but you got too scared to tell me."

Nope. It couldn't be that easy. I sighed and rest my head against his chest.

"Okay. Johnny, yes, I do love you. I am completely in love with you and I've been stubborn about it. I can admit that now, but…that's because I…I have to if this is going to work."

He pulled me away from him so he could look at my face.

"This? What is "this"? Hey, if you want us to be exclusive, I'm fine with it! Really, I've been waiting. We'll go on dates. I'll only date you, you'll only date me-"

"Johnny."

"What?"

He looked so confused as to why my face was completely serious. I'm sure he'd been waiting for me to admit my feelings and I'd be all smiley and laughing, but…he didn't understand. Hopefully, he would.

"Uhm, we're…well…"

"Hey, you two. What are you two doing being all loving in the middle of the hallway."

I hate my life. I turned and looked to see Ben had come out of the lab. Reed and Susan were right behind him. I was so close. The words were right there. Johnny ran over to Ben and put an arm around him.

"You see her standing there? Yeah, she just told me she's in love with me."

Ben laughed.

"Ha, about time. You two kids have been totally into each other to the point it was obvious to everyone. Though, she could have picked better."

I stood in the middle of the hall feeling as if I could actually burst into flame with the feeling of annoyance I had right now. Johnny went back over to me and hugged me. I didn't move at all. My brain was screaming. Reed and Susan obviously understood the situation, but couldn't do anything about it.

"Ben, tell her she should be happier about this. She's completely serious when she should be happy!"

Ben laughed and crossed his rocky arms.

"Candy, what's the matter? Other than the fact that you're in love with a no good playboy?"

"Hey! You don't need to insult me!"

"I was just teasing you. I'm sure you have some good points."

"Some good points? What does that mean?"

"I mean what I'm saying is-"

"I'M PREGNANT!"

Silence fell in the room as everyone looked at me. I felt my face go beet red and I shuffled my feet awkwardly. Johnny gave a small laugh.

"Wh-what? But we haven't-"

"Done anything for three months. I'm…three months pregnant."

He was quiet for a moment before he laughed again.

"You got me. That totally took me by surprise. Oh, Candy."

He put an arm around my shoulder.

"You don't need to say something like that to try and make sure I stay with only you. I promised-"

"Johnny, it's not a joke. She's serious," Susan spoke up," The doctor told her the time I went with her."

Ben, who had been in a state of shock, stomped over to Johnny and grabbed him by his shirt collar.

"You got her _pregnant_? Now, I'm going to kill you!"

"BEN!" the rest of us shouted.

He looked at me and I shook my head.

"Please put him down," I requested, putting a hand on his arm.

He dropped him with an angry expression. I'd known that Ben would have initially wanted to knock the daylights out of Johnny when he found out. He could be a bit like a big brother at times. A _really_ big brother. I took Johnny's hand and made him face me. He was in a bit of a stupor at the moment. He started mumbling to me.

"But I always wore-"

"I know, but you burned a hole a couple times, remember?"

"Three months and you didn't-"

"No, I was in denial. And the time wasn't right."

"I knew you were hiding something, but this?"

"I know. I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?"

Johnny took a few steps away from me. I could see it. He was mad. He was very, very mad.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

I gaped at him.

"I…I was scared. I didn't want to believe I was having baby. Sue knew because she was there and I told Reed because he'd run tests. I wasn't even sure if the baby would be alive long enough. I can't use my powers at all because it puts the baby at risk. And, Johnny, you're such a flirt and you love going out with girls and-"

"_And_ it's _my_ kid. You don't go and tell others when you didn't even tell me. Sue, fine. But before you told Reed, or right after…like five seconds after, you should have come to me, Candace. I told you I would be with you and only you. _I told you_. I have a right to take care of my own child. I can't believe you hid for three months. Heh, it all makes sense. Unbelievable. I never thought you of all people would hide something like that. I would have expected you to kick my door down and scream at me for being an irresponsible asshole, but here we are with you being the irresponsible one."

"Irresponsible? Me?"

It wasn't good, but I was getting defensive. I felt bad, because I understood where Johnny as coming from, but he didn't have to insult me.

"Yes. It's _your _responsibility to tell me when you knew. You didn't."

"I'm telling you now!"

"Yeah, after how long? I've been hanging around here watching you freak out and stress over something I didn't even know about that I kind of needed to. Dammit, Candace."

Johnny turned and went to the elevator. Reed stepped out next to me.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Out. I can't be around here right now."

"Johnny!" Susan protested.

I turned away.

"No, let him go."

Susan turned to me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"You don't mean that. Johnny, come back here."

He was already gone. Reed grabbed a jacket and pressed the elevator button. I stalked out of the room with Susan on my heels.

"Candy, wait."

"Sue, I really don't want to talk right now."

"I know, but I don't want you doing something and-"

"I won't freeze my room, I promise. Ugh."

I sat down on the stairs and put my head in my hands. My life was a mess. I got what I deserved. I should have told him as soon as I knew. He and I both knew it was his. There was no question about it at all. But my attempt to pretend nothing happened made me the bad guy.

"I wish I could move out."

"You, young lady, are staying right here. Look, Johnny will cool down and everything will be fine."

I looked up at her.

"Really? I didn't tell him he was a father for three months after I should have. You think he'll trust me again?"

"Of course he will. He loves you and even you know that. Sure, he's mad, but you two just have to work it out. You're both stubborn so it's hard sometimes, but it'll be okay. Trust me."

I stayed up late that night, but there was a limit to how long I could go without sleep. It was well past two in the morning when I went to bed. And neither Johnny, nor Reed had returned by then.

Author's Note: I don't know how much more to this story there will be. Probably not too much. So, I would like to ask you lovely readers what story you might like me to write next. I have a list on my profile if you'd please check that out and let me know what you'd like to see in the near future. And no worries, I'll update this story today or tomorrow. But this weekend (if I don't finish the story by then) I'll be busy. So if it isn't finished by tomorrow, look around for the next update to be Monday or Tuesday of next week. Thanks! – S.L.


	22. Chapter 22

I got up really early the next morning. Going downstairs, I found our home completely quiet, making me feel like the only resident. Everyone was probably still asleep, if they were home. I made myself a bowl of cereal and finished it in silence. Figuring that I needed to talk to Johnny, even if he'd just yell at me, I decided to check if he was home. I went to his bedroom door and knocked. I waited for a moment, not hearing anything.

"Johnny?" I asked, through the door," If you're in there and ignoring me…I'm sorry. I should have told you as soon as I know. I was acting stupid just because I wasn't sure if I'd end up losing the baby because I'd forget and use my powers or something. I…love you, Johnny. I'm so sorry."

I sighed. I was talking to his bedroom door. I felt better anyway, letting all that out. I knew I could say that to Johnny's face when he actually came back. I turned and went into my room. As I shut the door, I turned to come face to face with Johnny.

"Oh my-"

"Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. Breathe, relax."

I took a deep breath to let my heart rate go down. Panicking, pregnancy, not friends. I looked up at him.

"But I thought…"

He sighed and shook his head.

"I was listening. I was upset so I didn't open the door, but…I can't stay made at you. I was up all night thinking about this. I mean, you were wrong, but I can't…just stay mad. I forgive you."

He pulled me into his arms and held me. I couldn't help it as tears formed in my eyes. I clutched onto his shirt and cried.

"I'm s-s-sorry."

"I know, I know," he said, patting my head," But, look. If we ever have another kid, you had better tell me. Or else."

My crying stopped as I looked up at him in confusion.

"Another?"

"Ha! It worked. You stopped."

I gaped at him before smiling as he leaned down and kissed me. I led me over to the bed and had me sit down.

"Now, we have a lot of things to think about here," Johnny said," I assume you don't want the media knowing since you've been hiding at home."

I nodded, wiping away the stray tears. Johnny rummaged in his pocket for a moment. He suddenly knelt down in front of me as I sat on my bed and held a box out to me.

"I have an idea that may just work…as long as we make it fast."

"Johnny…?"

"Candace Elaine Richards, will you marry me?"

I stared at him in shock.

"Oh my…you just proposed."

"I did."

"But you're…Johnny."

"I am."

"But you-"

"Just yes or no, Candace."

"Uh…yes? Yes! Yes."

Johnny smiled and slipped a beautiful diamond ring on my finger. He got up and kissed me before sitting next to me.

"I…had this since the whole Silver Surfer thing after I started thinking "We survived! I need to get married to Candy eventually before something like that happens again". So you know, Reed helped me with the band. It won't break even when frozen which also means the diamond is perfectly safe, too. I'm thinking, we get married very soon before people can notice the baby bump. Now, that gives you a couple weeks. We get married, go off on a very private and secluded honeymoon, and then hide you for an extra three months and never, ever tell the media the exact date of our baby's birthday."

I laughed at him.

"You know what? I don't think it's that big of a deal anymore. We'll go through with the plan since it sounds fun, but they can learn about the birthday and I don't care."

Johnny smiled and kissed me on the forehead.

"Thank you! Now, out of curiosity…is there a rule against sleeping with a pregnant woman?"

I rolled my eyes at him.

"No, but there is a rule of being super gentle and careful."

"DONE!"

"Johnny!"

And we went with Johnny's covert operation. We got married two weeks later, had a fun two week honeymoon in Paris, France, and came back to let me hide till the baby was born. We decided we didn't care about gender, so we were thrilled when our adorable Isabella Susanne Storm was born. Surprisingly enough, Franklin Benjamin Richards was born eleven months later to Reed and Susan. The house was filled with bouncing, healthy babies. Which continued when Valerie Meghan Richards was born and Jackson Reed Storm came a year later. Sure, in later years the house was a mess with their powers being used, but that was part of being a non-normal family. But none of us, not even their Uncle Ben or Aunt Alicia, would change our beautiful, big, fantastic family.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading and giving supportive reviews! I hope guys loved it. It's the end. Come back and read more of my stories if you liked this one.


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